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JUL  1 6  1952 


THE    HUMAN    FACTOR   IN    EDUCATION 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NBW  YORK    •    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO  •    DALLAS 
ATLANTA  •   SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &   CO.,  LIMITED 

LONDON  •    BOMBAY  •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  LTD. 

TORONTO 


THE    HUMAN    FACTOR 
IN   EDUCATION 


BY 
JAMES  PHINNEY  MUNROE,  S.B.,  Lrrr.D. 

VICE-CHAIRMAN    FEDERAL    BOARD    FOR    VOCATIONAL    EDUCATION; 
SECRETARY  OF  THE  CORPORATION,    MASSACHUSETTS  INSTI- 
TUTE  OF  TECHNOLOGY;    PRESIDENT   (1910-11)   NA- 
TIONAL SOCIETY  FOR  VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION  ; 
CHAIRMAN     (1908-18)     MASSACHUSETTS 

COMMISSION    FOR    THE    BLIND 

AUTHOR   OF   "THE   EDUCATIONAL  IDEAL,"    "NEW   DEMANDS   IN 
EDUCATION,"    "THE   NEW   ENGLAND   CONSCIENCE,"    ETC. 


Nifo 

THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 
1921 

All  rights  reserved 


COPYRIGHT,  1920, 
BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotypcd.     Published  January,  igao. 


Nortooolj 

J.  8.  Gushing  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 
Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


Education 
Library 


/A 


PREFACE 

THE  extraordinary  conditions  surrounding  social  and 
economic  life  to-day  have  forced  even  the  most  indif- 
ferent to  consider  some  of  the  fundamental  questions 
which  lie  at  the  root  of  real  national  efficiency.  Abnor- 
mal profits  in  certain  industries,  serious  stagnation  in 
others,  the  cost  of  living  mounting  by  leaps  and  bounds, 
^  wages  following  after  with  a  rapidity  never  before 
r*  experienced,  and  the  man  on  a  salary  distracted  in  his 
-  effort  to  make  both  ends  meet :  these  and  other  untoward 
things  have  brought  about  a  state  of  unstable  equilib- 
^  rium  pregnant  with  danger. 

While  the  United  States  is  infinitely  richer  than  in 
1870,  while,  moreover,  its  currency  system  and  its  busi- 
ness credits  are  on  a  much  firmer  foundation  than  they 
were  fifty  years  ago,  there  is  nevertheless  so  close  a 
parallel  between  the  conditions  of  to-day  and  those 
immediately  following  the  Civil  War  as  to  call  up  to 
older  men  uncomfortable  recollections  of  what  was  per- 
haps the  most  far-reaching  of  American  panics,  that  of 
1873. 

At  that  period,  moreover,  the  United  States  was 
practically  self-contained  industrially,  politically  and 
socially;  whereas  to-day  it  is  not  only  a  member,  but 
for  the  moment  the  dominant  member,  of  a  vast  inter- 


vi  PREFACE 

related  industrial  and  financial  organism  in  which  a 
country  that  in  1873  thought  locally  in  terms  of  thou- 
sands, is  now  thinking  internationally  and  in  terms  of 
millions  of  dollars. 

Some  of  the  leading  questions  which  industry,  wit- 
nessing such  devastation  as  never  before  was  possible, 
asks  itself,  are  these: 

(1)  Will  the  after-peace  period  bring  an  unprece- 
dented rush  of  men  and  women  fleeing  from  militarism, 
or  will  it  bring  a  further  depletion  of  an  already  insuf- 
ficient labor  supply,  in  order  to  build  up  the  wrecked 
industries  of  Europe? 

(2)  Will  the  cessation  of  hostilities  find  the  great 
nations  of  Europe  so  occupied  in  meeting  their  own  long 
suspended  industrial  demands  that,  for  several  years  at 
least,  they  will  care  little  for  foreign  trade;  or,  on  the 
contrary,  will  they  at  once  flood  the  markets  of  other 
countries  with  vast  quantities  of  goods? 

(3)  Will  this  country  remain  on  its  present  compar- 
atively low  tariff  basis ;  or  will  it,  under  the  fear  of  this 
flooding,  return  to  high  tariff? 

(4)  Will  the  war  have  so  intensified  the  industrial 
training  of  the  European  nations  that  they  will  out- 
strip us  even  in  fields  formerly  our  own;  or  will  their 
people  be  so  unnerved  and  unsettled  by  the  strain  of  war 
as  to  require  another  generation  for  the  recovery  of  even 
normal  efficiency? 

(5)  Will  the  United  States  be  wise  enough  to  mo- 
bilize its  intellectual  and  industrial  forces  in  such  a  way 
as  to  make  science  and  education  effective  servants  of 


PREFACE  vii 

civilization;  or  will  it  go  muddling  on  in  the  wasteful 
ways  of  laissez-faire? 

(6)  Will  New  York  remain  the  financial  centre  of 
the  world,  retaining  a  dominant  share  of  the  gold  sup- 
ply;  or  will  that   supply   rapidly  make   its   way  back 
to   London,    Paris   and   Berlin,    restoring  the   London 
"  square  mile"  to  its  old  commanding  position? 

(7)  Will  the  hoped-for  fall  of  prices  be  rapid  or 
slow;  and,  in  either  case,  how  can  the  necessary  reduc- 
tions in  the  present  wage-scale  be  made  without  induc- 
ing widespread  labor  troubles  ? 

Whatever  may  prove  to  be  the  answers  to  these  grave 
questions,  those  answers  will  bring  with  them  compli- 
cated problems  of  finance,  of  manufacturing,  of  legis- 
lation, of  education,  of  the  relations  between  employer 
and  employee,  that  can  be  solved  only  by  meeting  them 
in  the  spirit  in  which  modern  science  meets  complex 
problems  of  engineering  or  of  public  health.  The  day 
of  dealing  with  such  matters  by  rule  of  thumb  has  for- 
ever passed;  and  the  attitude  of  mind  of  the  trained 
engineer,  applying  the  teachings  of  pure  and  applied 
science  to  specific  problems,  must  be  that  in  which  these 
hard  questions  of  the  next  ten  or  twenty  years  should 
be  resolutely  faced. 

It  is  significant  that  these  great  problems  are,  in  the 
final  analysis,  almost  purely  human  ones.  Questions 
of  immigration,  of  industrial  relations,  of  labor  effi- 
ciency, even  of  the  tariff  and  of  finance,  can  be  solved 
only  through  crowd  psychology,  through  sound  educa- 
tion, through  improving  the  relations  between  man  and 


viii  PREFACE 

man,  through  permanently  influencing  the  composite 
point  of  view  of  thousands,  and  indeed  millions,  of 
human  beings.  Consequently,  in  far  greater  measure 
than  ever  before,  the  welfare  of  the  United  States  dur- 
ing the  crucial  time  following  the  Great  War  will  de- 
pend upon  the  efficiency  with  which  are  handled  the 
infinitely  complex  problems  of  modern  human  relations. 

If  the  United  States  is  to  maintain  the  financial  and 
industrial  leadership  which  has  been  thrust  upon  it  by 
the  extraordinary  conditions  in  Europe,  it  must,  among 
other  things,  handle  the  immigration  question  as  a  sci- 
entific problem,  not  as  one  to  be  treated  without  thought 
or  system;  it  must  establish  relations  between  employer 
and  employee  based,  not  upon  the  self-seeking  of  both, 
but  upon  their  common  needs  and  upon  their  loyalty 
the  one  to  the  other ;  it  must  develop  its  public  education 
in  such  a  way  as  to  make  efficient  workmen  and  men 
competent  to  lead;  it  must  deal  with  the  tariff  question 
not,  as  heretofore,  at  the  behest  of  selfish  interests,  but 
on  grounds  of  sound  social  economy;  and  it  must  seek 
out  and  give  authority  to  men  big  enough  to  handle 
complicated  financial  questions  as  statesmen,  not  as  tools 
either  of  those  who,  though  equally  greedy,  are  forever 
denouncing  Wall  Street  greed,  or  of  Wall  Street  itself. 

Immigrants  are  badly  needed  in  this  country,  but  they 
should  be  of  the  right  sort,  they  should  be  distributed 
where  they  are  needed,  and  they  should  be  systematically 
trained  to  become  true  citizens  of  the  United  States. 
Capital  cannot  exist  without  labor  and  labor  cannot 
exist  without  capital;  therefore  neither  can  long  main- 


PREFACE  ix 

tain  itself  in  enmity:  their  common  salvation  depends 
upon  wise  cooperation  and  mutual  loyalty.  Efficient 
workmen  cannot  be  developed  without  a  widespread  edu- 
cation in  efficiency,  beginning  with  the  primary  school. 
Foreign  competition  cannot  be  successfully  met  unless 
those  efficient  workmen  are  officered,  from  the  lowest 
foreman  up  to  the  company's  president,  by  men  who 
know  how  to  buy,  how  to  manufacture  and  how  to 
market,  and  who  appreciate  what  team  work  really 
means.  And  even  attainment  of  these  ideal  conditions 
will  not  save  the  country,  industrially  and  socially,  unless 
we  see  to  it  that  the  intricate  questions  of  legislation  and 
of  foreign  relations  are  handled  by  educated  men  deter- 
mined to  serve,  not  themselves  or  their  party,  but  above 
all  else,  their  country.  The  crucial  problems  of  the 
next  twenty-five  years  depend  for  their  solution  upon 
the  strength,  the  integrity  and  the  wise  patience  of  every 
human  factor ;  and  this  means  that  each  of  those  human 
factors  must  be  sanely  educated  for  his  particular  re- 
sponsibility towards  the  common  task. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    IN  SOCIETY 

The  Real  Superman i 

The  World  of  the  Penny  Wise u 

Socialism 35 

The  "Political  Animal" 54 

The  Workaday  World 63 

The  Human  Home 80 

The  Human  Family 91 

The  Human  Community 104 

II.    IN  INDUSTRY 

The  Boy  in  Business 115 

The  Human  Factor  in  Business 131 

Art  in  Human  Life 141 

Industrial  Art  in  Human  Leadership  .        .        .        .156 
The  School  and  the  Manufacturer      .        .        .        .168 

III.  IN  TEACHING 

Education :  the  Common  Human  Task     .        .        .  182 

Education  for  Earning 191 

Standardization 212 

Child  Idleness 217 

College  Trustees  and  College  Faculties       .        .        .221 

Science  and  the  University 235 

IV.  IN  RECONSTRUCTION 

The  Main  Objectives 254 

A  National  Service  Year    .        .        .        .        .        .  265 

Saving  Human  Waste 281 

The  War's  Crippled 293 

Employing  the  Handicapped 309 


I.     IN   SOCIETY 


THE  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN 
EDUCATION 

THE   REAL   SUPERMAN 

THE  old  world  passed  out  of  existence  in  the  tragic 
August  of  1914.  The  world  in  which  the  rising  gener- 
ation will  play  its  part  is  one  as  different  from  that 
into  which  men  born  in  the  "  sixties  "  entered  as  theirs 
differed  from  that  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  last 
thirty-five  years  have  seen  changes  in  the  scale  of 
American  social,  business  and  intellectual  life  vast  in 
their  magnitude;  and  now,  with  the  ending  of  this 
greatest  of  wars,  there  will  be  a  new  leap  forward,  not 
only  on  the  side  of  industry  and  commerce,  but  still 
more  in  those  things  which  affect  the  social,  emotional 
and  educational  life  of  the  people. 

Meanwhile  we  live  in  the  midst  of  paradox.  We  are 
seeing,  on  the  one  hand,  such  national  expenditure  as, 
five  years  ago,  was  declared  impossible.  On  the  other 
hand,  we  have  just  experienced  an  absorption  in  econo- 
mies and  a  cheerfulness  in  deprivations  of  which  we 
believed  ourselves  incapable.  We  have  witnessed  prep- 
arations for  the  taking  of  human  life  on  a  scale  which  it 


2  HUMAN  FACTOR   IN  EDUCATION 

was  asserted  this  people  would  never  countenance  or 
bring  themselves  to  pay  for.  On  the  other  hand,  we 
are  developing  such  an  interest  in  the  safeguarding  of 
human  life  as  seemed  beyond  the  powers  of  this  happy- 
go-lucky  people.  We  have  just  gone  through  the 
greatest  proportional  depletion  of  our  schools  and  col- 
leges since  the  Civil  War;  yet  never  before  has  the 
public  interest  in  and  concern  for  education  been  so 
acute  as  now. 

These  apparent  paradoxes  are,  in  fact,  not  such  at 
all.  They  are  merely  the  two  sides  of  a  single  shield 
and  one  is,  in  fact,  the  inevitable  corollary  of  the  other. 
In  order  that  the  good  things  involved  in  economy  of 
living,  in  care  for  human  life  and  in  sound  education, 
might  be  realized  and  worked  for,  it  seemingly  was 
necessary  for  the  nation  to  be  brought  face  to  face  with 
the  awful  facts  of  reckless  expenditure,  of  waste  of 
human  life,  of  threatening  disaster  through  ignorance 
or  through  lack  of  a  due  reserve  of  highly  skilled  and 
highly  educated  men.  And  the  silver  lining  to  this 
hideous  cloud  of  devastating  war  is  found  in  the  fact 
that  out  of  its  dreadful  sufferings  and  wastes  and  long- 
enduring  evils  will  come,  in  time,  a  thrift,  a  regard  for 
individual  life  and  a  confidence  in  the  power  of  real 
education  that  will  not  only  be  new  to  this  country,  but, 
in  its  effect  upon  coming  generations,  will  be  so  bene- 
ficial as  almost  to  offset  the  manifold  evils  of  the  war. 
\  The  education  of  the  late  nineteenth  century,  owing 
to  tradition,  inertia  and  a  general  ignorance  as  to  what 
education  means,  was  largely  one  of  waste.  We  wasted 


THE  REAL  SUPERMAN  3 

well-intentioned  effort  upon  perfectly  fruitless  things. 
We  wasted  the  time  of  child  and  youth  upon  work  that 
meant  as  little  to  us  as  it  did  to  them.  We  shrank  from 
wasting  money  in  experimentation,  but  delighted  in 
spending  ten  times  as  much  upon  traditional  teaching 
the  very  source  of  whose  tradition  had  for  generations 
been  forgotten.  We  wasted  our  natural  resources  and 
taught  coming  generations  how  to  continue  that  waste 
in  exaggerated  forms.  And,  worst  of  all,  we  wasted 
that  most  precious  of  all  national  assets,  human  ability 
and  human  energy,  with  almost  drunken  prodigality. 
And  none  of  us  felt  any  immediate  responsibility.  That 
we  survived  this  national  orgy,  that  we  are  to-day  richer 
and  more  powerful  than  ever  before,  is  testimony  to 
the  soundness  not  of  our  methods,  but  of  our  national 
birthright  and  of  mother  nature. 

To  have  gone  on  with  this  social  and  educational 
waste,  however,  for  another  generation  or  two  would 
have  brought  us  unfailingly  to  the  brink  of  national 
bankruptcy.  Already  we  were  getting  disturbed  about 
the  shrinkage  in  our  forests,  our  coal  and  our  many 
other  national  endowments.  Already  we  were  begin- 
ning to  measure  and  weigh  the  oncoming  generation  and 
to  find  alarming  portents  in  its  diminishing  vitality. 
Already  we  were  asking  ourselves  why  we  should  pro- 
tect our  vegetable,  and  not  our  human  growths ;  why  we 
should  have  elaborate  laws  for  the  preservation  of  hogs, 
and  none  for  the  preservation  of  boys  and  girls.  And 
some  of  us  were  even  daring  to  question  the  sacredness 
of  our  educational  traditions  and  to  wonder  if  it  were 


HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

really  ordained  of  Heaven  that  the  child  should  be  fitted 
to  the  educational  process  rather  than  that  the  educa- 
tional process  should  be  fitted  to  the  child. 

Upon  this  shadowland  of  questioning  and  doubt, 
mrst  the  great  war.  As  is  the  habit  of  catastrophes, 
it  brought  us  face  to  face  with  naked  and  appalling 
facts.  That  we  found  ourselves  unprepared  to  deal 
with  such  an  enemy  as  Germany,  who  has  made  war  a 
supreme  business  for  half  a  century,  is  perhaps  to  our 
credit;  but  it  is  greatly  to  our  discredit  that  we  could 
not  rise  quickly  to  a  vast  emergency,  whatever  might  be 
its  origin  or  character.  We  found  ourselves  to  have 
become,  through  great  riches  and  much  absorption  in 
them,  slothful  and  self-indulgent.  We  found  that  our 
sons  and  daughters  knew  more  about  motor-cars  than 
about  creative  work.  We  learned  that  our  governmen- 
tal machinery  was  rusty  with  age  and  circumlocution. 
We  discovered  that,  far  from  having  unlimited  agri- 
cultural and  mineral  resources,  a  few  months,  or  even 
a  few  weeks,  might  bring  us  to  national  starvation  and 
death  from  cold.  And  we  found  ourselves  compelled 
to  take  exact  stock  of  our  human  energy,  to  count  it 
out,  individual  by  individual,  for  service  in  battle,  in 
the  factory  and  on  the  farm;  and,  to  our  increasing 
alarm,  we  are  discovering  that  those  human  resources 
have  a  very  definite  limitation  both  in  numbers  and  in 
fitness  for  the  tasks  that  they  must  do.  So,  practically 
for  the  first  time  in  our  haphazard  American  life,  we 
are  facing  the  inexorable  fact  that  we  have  been  a  nation 
wasteful  beyond  all  others  and  that  this  waste  must 


THE  REAL  SUPERMAN  5 

stop.  And  that  stopping  can  come  only  through  an 
education  which  is  no  longer  wasteful,  and  through  a 
focusing  of  that  education  to  a  large  degree  upon  the 
problems  of  preventing  wastes. 

Education,  after  the  great  war,  will  cease  to  be, 
there  is  reason  to  believe,  a  spendthrift  in  itself  and  a 
praiser  and  promoter  of  extravagance.  It  will  be,  on 
the  contrary,  an  education  conserving  the  pupil's  time, 
his  individuality  and  his  special  aptitudes  and  talents ;  it 
will  be  one  that,  directly  and  indirectly,  will  fix  attention 
upon  certain  great  fundamental  wastes  which  must  no 
longer  be  permitted,  and  the  prevention  of  which  is  a 
thing  worthy  of  the  best  efforts  of  mankind. 

The  supreme  acquisitive  years  are  those  between 
birth  and  majority,  and  in  those  years  the  physical  and 
mental  health,  the  character,  the  aims  and  practically 
the  life  career  of  the  individual  are  for  all  time  deter- 
mined. Yet  a  large  proportion  of  those  precious 
twenty-one  years  are  now  thrown  away,  because  of  the 
ignorance  of  parents  as  to  what  education  means;  be- 
cause of  the  adherence  of  schools  to  traditions  which 
have  meant  nothing  since  medieval  days ;  because  of  our 
fear  of  teaching  immediately  practical  and  useful 
things;  because  of  our  queer  notions  that  work  is  a 
curse  and  that  play  has  no  training  value;  because  we 
create  vast  educational  plants  and  then  use  them  to  one 
fifth  of  their  capacity;  because,  in  short,  we  do  not  take 
a  human  being  seriously  until  he  becomes  a  man,  until 
the  precious  period  in  which  he  might  have  been  made  a 
real  man  and  an  effective  citizen  has  irrevocably  passed. 


6  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

The  first  lesson  that  education  itself  must  learn  is 
that  it  is  a  serious  business:  serious,  because  it  deals 
with  the  prime  asset  of  mankind;  a  business  because  it 
has  a  certain  definite  task  to  do  and  a  limited  time  in 
which  to  do  it,  and  should  conserve  every  minute  and 
every  resource  of  that  short  training  period.  Most  cur- 
rent education  cannot  presume  to  call  itself,  however, 
either  serious  or  businesslike;  for  it  leaves  four  fifths 
of  its  task  to  be  performed  haphazard,  upon  the  streets 
and  in  by-ways;  because  it  still  regards  the  child  as  a 
mechanism  to  be  fitted  into  its  stereotyped  machinery, 
not  as  a  human  intellect  and  soul  to  be  individually 
developed;  because  it  sublimely  ignores  all  the  experi- 
ence and  teaching  of  other  businesses;  because,  while 
spending  a  great  proportion  of  the  national  revenue,  it 
feels  no  obligation  to  render  any  specific  returns  for 
those  expenditures,  and  makes  no  study  of  the  efficiency 
of  the  output  of  its  vast  and  costly  mechanism. 

The  war  will  almost  have  been  worth  while  if, 
through  the  lessons  it  has  taught,  our  complex  educa- 
tional systems  come  to  realize  that  they  must  make 
themselves  really  efficient,  by  using  their  plants  to 
capacity ;  by  supervising  the  whole  training  of  the  child, 
in  school  and  out;  by  making  use  of  the  immense  edu- 
cative power  of  both  real  work  and  real  play ;  by  teach- 
ing those  who  are  to  be  the  fathers  and  mothers  of  the 
future  how  to  make  homes  and  how  to  fulfill  their  obli- 
gations to  society;  by  developing  children  into  self- 
respecting  citizens  not  only  by  training  them  for 
democratic  citizenship,  but  by  carefully  helping  them  to 


THE  REAL  SUPERMAN  7 

make   for  themselves  a  real  place  in  the  social  and 
economic  world. 

More  than  this,  education  in  the  United  States  after 
the  war  will  utilize  to  a  degree  quite  beyond  present 
experience  numerous  aids  and  forces  outside  the  school. 
The  home  is  far  more  interested  in  educating  the  child 
than  is  the  school ;  yet  at  scarcely  a  single  point  do  these 
chief  elements  in  the  upbringing  of  the  boy  and  girl 
come  into  cooperation  or  even  into  contact.  The  com- 
munity has  everything  at  stake  in  this  matter  of 
education,  for  upon  the  quality  of  its  citizenship  its 
happiness  and  prosperity  depend;  yet,  except  through 
a  school  board  or  an  occasional  interested  citizen,  the 
community  is  as  remote  from  the  inside  of  the  school- 
house  as  it  is  from  the  steppes  of  Turkestan.  Industry 
must  depend  for  its  welfare  wholly  upon  the  kind  of  youth 
who  come  to  it  as  workers;  yet  only  in  extremely  rare 
instances  does  the  school,  which  is  training  the  coming 
generation  and  the  industries,  whose  future  lies  in  the 
hands  of  that  new  supply  of  workers,  come  together  for 
the  common  end  of  making  youth  competent  for  this 
vast  business  of  producing  and  distributing  goods  essen- 
tial to  human  well-being.  Outside  every  schoolroom 
and  every  college  hall  is  a  great  field  of  nature,  of  agri- 
culture, of  manufacturing,  of  political  and  of  social 
experience.  Associated  with  all  those  human  activities 
are  thousands  of  men  and  women,  not  only  competent, 
but  eager  to  share  effectively  in  the  work  of  the  schools. 
Yet  they  and  the  school  and  college  faculties  are  as  far 
apart  as  the  antipodes.  In  every  city  are  huge  collec- 


8  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

tions,  libraries  and  other  fountains  of  knowledge  which 
are  being  used  only  by  a  few  institutions.  Those  citi- 
zens, those  industries,  those  vast  storehouses  of  knowl- 
edge should  be  made  essential  elements  in  the  educa- 
tional system  of  the  whole  United  States,  and  we  should 
regard  as  clearly  defrauded  that  child  who,  as  a  part 
of  his  elementary  education,  that  youth  who,  as  a  part 
of  his  secondary  and  college  training,  that  student  who, 
as  a  part  of  his  professional  preparation,  has  not  had 
every  opportunity  to  get  the  use  of  some  or  all  of  these 

y almost  untouched  sources  of  true  learning.  The  term 
"  social  education  "  is  still  a  strange  one  to  most  of  us ; 
but  in  it  lies  the  whole  economic,  intellectual  and  moral 
future  of  this  country.  If  the  coming  generation  is 
to  be  educated  to  take  its  proper  and  effective  place  in 
the  vast  complex  of  modern  society,  it  must  have  as  its 
teachers,  not  merely  some  few  men  and  women  paid 
to  hear  lessons  and  to  give  formal  lectures ;  it  must  have 
the  teaching  of  all  the  varied  forces  of  modern  social 
and  industrial  life,  it  must  be  brought,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, into  real  contact  with  all  the  elements  which  are 
building,  out  of  the  resources  of  nature  and  of  man,  an 
ever  more  complicated,  ever  more  efficient  and  ever 
more  spiritual  world. 

By  the  cataclysm  of  this  great  war,  the  forces  of 
industrial  and  social  life,  the  intellectual  activities  and, 
above  all,  the  spiritual  emotions  of  human  society  have 
been  stirred  to  their  uttermost  limits.  Before,  we 
skated  on  the  surfaces  of  things;  now  we  are  looking 
into  their  illimitable  depths.  Before,  we  regarded  in- 


THE  REAL  SUPERMAN  9 

dustry  as  a  means  for  making  money ;  now  we  perceive 
it  to  be  one  of  the  essential  f ormatives  of  human  society. 
Before,  we  looked  upon  human  beings  as  automata  and 
their  education  as  a  sort  of  hocus-pocus  with  little  rela- 
tion to  mental  or  spiritual  life;  now  we  know  that  every 
individual  is  precious  and  that  his  personality  and  its 
right  development  are  essential  elements  in  the  Divine 
scheme.  Out  of  this  welter  of  battle  and  preparation 
for  battle  is  to  come  to  all  the  world,  and  especially  to 
this  new  part  of  it,  teeming  with  wealth  of  body  and 
mind  and  soul,  widespread  self-searchings  and  profound 
self-revelations.  From  those  will  be  born,  in  the  prox- 
imate generations,  such  poets,  such  artists,  such  men 
of  science,  such  philosophers,  such  great  intellectual 
and  moral  leaders,  as  will  make  this  materially  great 
country  of  ours  enduringly  great.  For  the  vast  stores 
of  grains  and  minerals,  the  wealth  of  cities,  the  labor 
and  the  striving  of  mankind  exist,  not  for  the  heaping 
up  of  gold  and  the  creating  of  things  and  more  things; 
they  exist  as  the  rich  source  and  fruitful  menstruum  out 
of  which,  in  each  succeeding  generation,  emerge  a  few 
master  minds,  a  few  discoverers,  a  few  real  poets,  a 
few  high  spiritual  leaders,  who,  by  their  work,  their 
inspiration  and  their  compelling  example,  raise  their 
generation  one  step  higher  in  the  great,  continuous 
uplift  of  the  world.  And  the  time  will  almost  surely 
come,  after  the  hurts  and  sorrows  of  this  great  war 
have  been  in  some  measure  healed,  when  we  in  the 
United  States  will,  to  use  Lincoln's  fine  phrase,  "sol- 
emnly rejoice  "  that  by  this  cataclysm  we  were  shaken 


io  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

to  our  very  foundations  and  that  out  of  those  deep  and 
catastrophic  national  emotions  were  born  the  supreme 
men  and  women  who  will  issue,  directly  or  indirectly, 
from  this  world-wide  conflict,  and  who  will  make  this 
great  nation  of  composite  races  not  only  the  leader,  but 
also  the  exemplar  of  mankind. 


THE   WORLD    OF   THE   PENNY   WISE 

THE  usage  of  the  great  war,  which  dated  events  from 
"  Somewhere  in  France,"  gives  precedent  for  saying 
that  "  Somewhere  in  New  England  "  the  following  con- 
versation may  (or  may  not)  have  taken  place.  The 
scene  is  a  picturesque  village,  ten  miles  from  a  railroad. 
Its  wide,  grass-grown  street  is  lined  with  a  double  row 
of  elms,  its  untrimmed  fruit  trees  bear  infrequent  and 
weazened  apples,  its  houses,  for  the  most  part  unpainted, 
are  falling  into  decay.  The  windows  of  its  one  store 
are  filled  with  fly-specked  rubbish,  its  three  or  four 
churches  advertise  the  poverty  of  their  congregations: 
yet  over  it  all  is  an  air  of  exquisite  peace. 

The  only  person  visible  is  an  elderly  farmer  leaning 
against  a  lop-sided  post  and  chewing,  ruminatingly,  a 
bit  of  straw.  Having,  with  neither  animation  nor  in- 
terest, and  with  an  acid  economy  of  words,  indicated 
the  way  to  the  railroad,  he  seems  disposed  to  relapse 
into  the  prevailing  somnolence.  The  motorist,  however, 
with  the  jarring  alertness  of  his  kind,  wonders  if  even 
this  ancient  model  of  humanity  may  not  be  cranked  into 
some  sort  of  verbal  speed. 

"  Don't  you  find  it  inconvenient  to  be  so  far  from  the 
railroad  ?  " 

ii 


12  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

"  Naw.  Could  ha'  had  the  railroad  here  when  I  was 
a  little  shaver,  but  none  on  us  didn't  want  it." 

"How's  that?" 

"  Waal,  they  had  it  fixed  f  er  to  take  some  of  our  bes' 
farm  land  and  to  soak  us  f  er  betterments ;  so  father  an' 
some  o'  the  rest  on  'em  fit  it  tooth  and  nail,  and  made 
'em  go  through  Hog  Holler,  ten  miles  further  down." 

"  Aren't  you  sorry  now  ?  " 

"  Naw.  Wife's  brother  lives  down  to  Hog  Holler 
(though  they  don't  call  it  that  naow;  got  some  high- 
falutin'  name  like  Rainbow  Falls;)  and  when  I  see  him 
last,  'bout  ten  years  ago,  he  said  he  was  kep'  awake 
terribul  by  the  trains  an'  the  fact'ries,  an'  thet  they 
warn't  no  more  comfort  settin'  roun'  the  hotel,  it's  so 
darn  full  o'  strangers." 

:'  Have  pretty  good  crops  ?  " 

"  Tolerbul.  Them  fool  perfessors  from  the  Ager- 
cult'al  College  tried  ter  tell  us  our  fields  needed  suthin' 
stronger'n  caow  manure;  but  when  we  found  out  what 
them  new-fangled  fert'lizers  cost,  we  see  through  their 
game.  Guess  they  git  consideble  of  a  rake-off." 

"Your  houses  here  are  mighty  picturesque;  but  don't 
you  think  a  little  paint  would  do  them  good  ?  " 

"  Gosh  A'mighty,  man,  I  guess  you  don't  know  what 
paint  costs.  You  city  fellers  may  want  ter  throw  yore 
money  away  on  sech  foolishness  as  paint ;  we  don't." 

"  You  have  such  a  fine  air  here  I  suppose  you  don't 
need  a  doctor  ?  " 

"  No  sirree ;  yarb  tea  an'  petent  medicines  is  good 
enough  for  us.  Don't  ketch  me  payin'  no  fifty  cents  to 


THE  WORLD  OF  THE  PENNY  WISE  13 

no  dandified  young  cuss  fer  looking'  at  my  tongue. 
Kin  see  it  myself  in  the  lookin'  glass  fer  nawthin'." 

"  Don't  have  many  deaths,  then  ?  " 

"  Wall,  no,  'cep'in  fum  quinsy  .sore  throat  an'  scarlet 
fever  and  sich  like.  An'  the  wimmen  nowadays  don't 
seem  ter  be  able  ter  raise  the'r  young  uns.  Why,  my 
mother  had  fifteen,  an'  they  didn't  but  ten  on  'em  die 
young.  Wimmen  these  days  think  they've  done  well 
if  they  raise  one." 

'  That's  why  you  have  so  many  graveyards,  I  sup- 
pose." 

"  Waal,  didn't  strike  me  as  they  wus  tu  many,  when 
I  think  er  some  er  the  folks  here  as  orter  be  in  'em. 
'Tenny  rate,  this  Ian'  up  here  araoun'  the  churches  ain't 
good  for  nawthin' ;  jest  as  well  ter  put  it  ter  some  use. 
Don't  cost  nawthin'  ter  git  berried  here  neither;  taown 
pays  fer  it." 

"  How  do  you  happen  to  have  so  many  churches  in 
so  small  a  place?" 

"  Waal,  they  ain't  much  er  anythin'  in  the  way  of 
amusement  'cep'  goin'  ter  church ;  an'  country  ministers 
is  dirt  cheap." 

"  I  suppose  your  moral  conditions  must  be  exception- 
ally good." 

"  Hey  ?  Oh,  morals :  I  guess  they  ain't  no  more  moral 
taown  in  this  here  state.  Why,  we  don't  drink  nawthin' 
'cep'  hard  cider,  which  don't  cost  nawthin' ;  an'  we  don't 
swear  'cep'  when  none  o'  the  ministers  ain't  'raound; 
an'  they  ain't  a  soul  .in  this  taown  but  what  kin  lead  in 
prayer  to  beat  the  band." 


14  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

"  I  suppose  your  young  people  are  all  happily  mar- 
ried?" 

"  Waal,  it's  funny  about  that.  See  them  boys  an' 
gals  comin'  out  er  skule?  Waal,  I  guess  quite  a  lot  of 
'em  would  hev  kinder  hard  work  to  prove  in  a  court  er 
law  jest  who  they  belonged  ter." 

"  Oh,  that's  the  schoolhouse,  is  it?  " 

"Yaas;  used  ter  be  Bill  Jones'  barn,  but  his  crops 
shrunk  so  he  heddn't  no  use  fer  it,  an'  it  didn't  cost 
much  ter  fix  it  fer  schoolin'." 

"  Have  a  good  teacher  ?  " 

"  Waal,  Mandy  Jones  ain't  no  great  shakes  fer  book 
larnin',  but  she's  gosh-all-fired  on  lickins.  She  hedden't 
brains  enough  ter  keep  store,  so  she's  glad  to  teach  fer 
almost  nawthin'." 

"  But  your  boys  and  girls  don't  learn  much,  do  they  ?  " 

"  She  larns  'em  as  much  as  is  good  fer  'em.  Why, 
over  ter  the  next  taown  they  got  a  high-price  college 
cuss  ter  teach  the  skule,  an'  what  d'ye  think  come  uv  it  ? 
The  boys  an'  gals  all  got  ressless  an'  most  on  'em  wus 
fer  leavin'  home.  None  on  our  young  folks  hain't 
wanted  to  git  out  er  here  sence  I  kin  remember." 

"  Thank  you  very  much  for  your  information.  Could 
I  have  a  drink  of  water  ?  " 

"  Glad  ter  git  it  for  yer,  but  I  warn  yer  yer  may  not 
like  it.  We  think  it's  fust  class,  but  some  city  folks 
we've  giv  it  to,  said  it  tasted  o'  the  sink  drain.  They're 
both  reel  handy  ter  the  back  door.  —  Ye  think  yer  better 
not  wait?  Waal,  all  right;  come  agin." 

And  as  we  glided  out  from  the  farther  end  of  the 


THE  WORLD  OF  THE  PENNY  WISE  15 

glorious  double  arch  of  elms  we  saw  him  re-settle  him- 
self against  the  post,  resuming  his  straw. 

Looking  back,  however,  at  that  lovely  village,  with 
its  absolute  peace,  its  freedom  from  "  problems,"  its 
ignorance  of  cankering  ambitions,  the  "  honk  "  of  the 
motor-car  seemed  the  despairing  cry  of  a  lost  soul, 
driven  from  Paradise  into  the  arid  desert  of  money- 
making,  money-spending,  politics,  social  ambition  and 
the  ceaseless  game  of  grab.  In  that  calm  backwater  of 
the  world,  there  are  no  self-questionings,  no  making  for 
the  sake  of  spending,  no  unsatisfiable  wants,  no  moral 
conflicts ;  simply  a  peaceful  acceptance  of  things  as  they 
are,  with  the  firm  conviction  that  in  such  contentment 
lies  the  beginning  and  end  of  wisdom.  How  delight- 
ful, for  example,  must  have  been  the  self-satisfaction 
of  the  old  Nantucketers,  who  used  to  refer  to  the  rest  of 
the  United  States  as  "  off-island." 

Thoreau,  who  retired  to  the  woods  to  live  upon 
nothing  (and  immediately  came  out  again  to  borrow 
Emerson's  axe)  ;  Bronson  Alcott,  who  meditated  on  the 
unknowable,  while  his  wife  did  the  washing;  David 
Grayson,  who,  in  his  "back-to-nature"  books,  lives 
without  thought  of  the  morrow,  sure  of  concocting  some 
suitable  adventure :  certainly  all  such  men  as  these  have 
reached  the  pinnacle  of  true  happiness,  whence  they  can 
look  down  with  genuine  pity  upon  us  poor,  unenlightened 
"  materialists,"  bargaining  in  our  stores  and  offices, 
banging  along,  some  in  the  over-capitalized  trolley-car 
and  some  in  the  under-capitalized  motor-car,  all  of  us 
working  and  smirking  for  our  daily  bread,  all  of  us 


16  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

hanging  desperately  to  the  skirts  of  Fortune  who,  sooner 
or  later,  whisks  around  the  corner,  leaving  us  ruefully 
staring  at  a  bit  of  moonshine  torn  from  her  vanished 
robe! 

Followers  of  the  so-called  "  simple  life  "  have  cer- 
tainly learned  the  wisdom  of  saving,  not  only  their  pen- 
nies, but  their  nerves.  They  have  succeeded  in  reducing 
life  to  its  lowest  terms,  and  have  put  into  actual  practice 
all  the  smug  copybook  maxims,  such  as  "  Waste  not, 
want  not/'  "  A  penny  saved  is  a  penny  earned,"  etc. 
But  —  the  early  Christians  tried  this  living-upon- 
nothing  policy,  as  a  means  of  saving  their  souls,  and 
they  brought  on  the  hideous  miseries  of  the  Dark  Ages. 
The  people  of  India  have  for  generations  saved  them- 
selves from  vulgar,  materialistic  activity,  and  famine 
and  pestilence  are  their  never-ceasing  reward.  In 
short,  the  naked  savage  basking  under  the  bread-fruit 
tree,  and  the  hobo,  kicked  and  "  moved  on,"  are  the  only 
truly  logical  exponents  of  the  simple  life ;  but  the  unfet- 
tered ease  which  they  and  the  more  sophisticated  loafers 
have  certainly  secured  is  paid  for,  many  times  over,  by 
the  rest  of  the  social  organism  which  must  carry  its 
own  burdens  and  these  drones  besides. 

The  Greatest  of  Teachers  crystallized  the  whole  phi- 
losophy of  living  in  the  parable  of  the  talents.  He  who 
buried  even  his  one  small  talent  was  "wicked  and 
slothful";  and  only  to  those  who  used  and  multiplied 
their  opportunities  was  there  given  promise  of  abundant 
life. 

The  accomplished  idler  is  charming,  the  hermit  is 


THE  WORLD  OF  THE  PENNY  WISE  17 

sincerely  pious,  the  social  recluse  is  surely  harmless,  the 
decaying  village  is  picturesque,  the  reducing  of  life  to  its 
lowest  terms  sounds  innocent  and  praiseworthy ;  but  the 
hard  fact  is  that  all  those  persons  and  all  those  com- 
munities that  do  not  put  themselves,  their  one  talent  or 
their  ten  talents,  to  strenuous  use,  are,  in  the  vivid 
English  slang,  mere  "  slackers."  With  mankind  always 
fighting  to  preserve  what  of  good  it  has  achieved  and 
to  reach  even  higher  standards  of  achievement,  the  man 
or  group  of  men  that  refuses  to  struggle,  that  is  willing 
to  enjoy  the  advantages  of  civilization  without  working 
for  them,  is  no  better  than  the  coward  who  lets  the  other 
fellow  do  the  defending  of  his  home  and  property. 

We  abhor  the  outcome  —  if  it  is  the  outcome  —  of 
the  teachings  of  that  more  or  less  insane  Mephistopheles 
who  whispered  dreams  of  world-conquest  into  the  too- 
willing  ears  of  William-the-Second-to-nobody,  but  we 
must  agree  that  Nietzsche's  fundamental  doctrine  is 
sound.  That  thesis  upon  which  his  whole  grim  teach- 
ing rests  is  that  Life  is  given  us  to  live,  and  that  we 
should  live  it  to  the  very  full.  "  No,"  Nietzsche  says, 
"life  has  not  disappointed  me !  On  the  contrary,  every 
year  ...  I  find  it  richer,  more  desirable,  more  enig- 
matical—  And  knowledge  itself  .  .  .  for  me  it  is  a 
world  of  perils  and  triumphs."  "  Life  as  a  means  for 
gaining  knowledge  —  with  this  principle  in  one's  heart," 
he  continues,  "one  can  .  .  .  live  joyfully  and  laugh 
gaily."  And  later  in  this  treatise  of  his  on  "  The  Gay 
Science,"  he  says :  "  Believe  me,  the  secret  of  gathering 
the  fertilest  harvest  and  the  greatest  enjoyment  from 


i8  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

existence  is  ...  to  live  dangerously,"  by  which  he 
means :  to  live  out  of  the  common  rut,  to  live,  not  as  one 
of  a  herd,  but  as  a  pioneer. 

The  responsibility  of  the  individual  —  not  selfishly 
to  himself,  but  generously  to  his  group  and  to  the  future 
—  that  was  Nietzsche's  ceaseless  contention;  and  it  is 
that  responsibility  and  its  resulting  glory  which  most 
of  us  timid  mortals  are  every  day  sacrificing  to  the  dull- 
ness, the  cowardice,  the  sloth,  the  conventionality  of  the 
unenterprising,  unimaginative  crowd.  We  are  always 
patting  ourselves  on  the  back  for  being  prudent;  and 
we  cannot,  or  will  not,  see  that  in  saving  the  penny  of 
stupid  ease  to-day  we  are  wasting  the  pound  of  glorious 
accomplishment  to-morrow.  Grubbing  in  the  muck  for 
the  coveted  ha'pennies  that  the  little  world  around  us 
has  decided  to  be  safe  and  sane,  we  never  look  up  and 
never  realize,  therefore,  the  golden  fortune  of  real 
achievement  that  a  life  lived,  as  Nietzsche  says,  "  dan- 
gerously "  would  have  been  glad  to  give. 

Only  simpletons  believe  in  the  life  which  is  called 
"  simple,"  but  which  is  really  rudimentary ;  only  fools 
hide  their  earnings,  actually  or  metaphorically,  in  an  old 
stocking.  There  is  nothing  so  expensive  as  misplaced 
economy,  whether  in  material  or  in  spiritual  things, 
whether  of  our  money,  of  our  minds  or  of  ourselves. 
A  most  significant  remark  was  made  by  Cameron 
Forbes  jiist  after  he  came  back  from  his  service  as  Gov- 
ernor-General of  the  Philippines.  Speaking  of  the 
government  roads  out  there,  he  said,  "  They  cost  about 
seven  times  as  much  as  yours,  for  we  couldn't  possibly 
afford  to  build  such  cheap  roads  as  you  do." 


THE  WORLD   OF  THE  PENNY  WISE  19 

The  most  important  lesson  that  the  efficiency  engi- 
neers —  and  they  are  in  number  as  the  locusts  of 
Scripture  —  have  taught  us,  is  that  the  secret  of  busi- 
ness prosperity  is  not  to  save,  but  to  spend.  The  owner 
who  thinks  he  is  making  money  by  cutting  wages, 
sticking  to  antiquated  machinery  and  starving  his  sales- 
men is  on  the  rapid  road  to  ruin.  True  economy  lies 
not  in  cheese-paring,  but  in  liberal  spending,  in  wise 
outlay  for  men,  for  machinery,  and  for  keeping  both 
at  their  maximum  efficiency.  What  is  true  of  the  fac- 
tory is  doubly  true  of  the  household,  the  city  and  the 
State.  Every  cent  not  spent  now  in  warding  off  evils, 
in  preventing  wastes,  in  promoting  real,  sound  progress, 
means  dollars  spent  in  the  future  in  trying,  usually  in 
vain,  to  repair  the  resulting,  and  wholly  needless,  dam- 
age. The  heavy  taxes,  the  high  cost  of  living,  the  civic 
burden  and  the  personal  sorrow  that  follow  in  the  wake 
of  crime,  drunkenness,  insanity,  pauperism,  feeblemind- 
edness, etc.,  all  represent  the  "pound  foolishness"  that  is 
being  relentlessly  wrung  from  us  now  to  make  amends 
for  our  "penny  wisdom"  and  that  of  our  forebears  in  the 
past,  in  not  having  spent  liberally  money  and  thought  and 
time  in  destroying  the  causes  of  these  blighting  evils. 

It  costs  a  little  less  to  erect  wooden  houses  than  fire- 
resisting  ones ;  so  we  build  acres  and  acres  of  them,  and 
our  "  national  ash-pile  "  represents  every  year  almost 
as  large  a  sum  as  that  expended  on  new  buildings.  And 
so  long  as  it  is  Chicago  or  Chelsea  or  Salem  that  burns 
up,  we,  living  elsewhere,  are  cheerfully  resigned. 

We  flatter  ourselves,  of  course,  that  the  insurance 


20  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

companies  shoulder  this  great  waste;  but  they  do  not 
and  they  cannot.  The  expense  of  this  colossal  burning 
and  the  huge  cost,  too,  of  supporting  fire  departments 
that  attempt,  in  vain,  to  prevent  it,  comes  entirely  out  of 
the  pockets  of  the  citizens.  This  is  a  kind  of  civic 
"  penny  wisdom  "  of  which  we  Americans  are  especially 
fond;  and  the  result  is  that  the  builders  of  wooden 
shacks  and  three-deckers  make  a  quick  profit,  and  we, 
the  poor  public,  with  our  huge  bills  for  fire  protection  and 
fire  waste,  pay  that  profit  and  millions  of  dollars  of  loss 
besides.  If  the  building  laws  were  made  adequate  and 
were  enforced,  it  would  cost  the  real  estate  promoters 
more  and  their  returns  would  be  slower  in  coming;  but 
in  the  end  the  owners  would  make  much  more  money 
and  the  rest  of  us  would  find  the  taxes  and  the  high  cost 
of  living  rapidly  coming  down. 

One  might  present  unnumbered  examples  of  what 
our  unwillingness  to  spend  a  few  dollars  to-day  costs  us 
in  thousands  to-morrow.  Indeed,  the  main  purpose  of 
city  and  town  planning  is  to  try  to  save  our  descendants 
from  paying  some  of  the  huge  sums  to  remedy  our 
short-sightedness  that  we  are  every  day  expending  in 
a  seemingly  vain  attempt  to  repair  the  stupidity  or  the 
niggardliness  of  our  near-sighted  predecessors.  And  it 
is  to  be  hoped  that  we  shall  celebrate  the  300th  anniver- 
sary of  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  not  by  thank- 
ing God  that  there  are  still  a  few  of  us  left  whose  humble 
progenitors  came  over  in  the  hold  of  the  "  Mayflower  " 
rather  than  in  the  steerage  of  the  "  Saxonia  " ;  but  that, 
on  the  contrary,  we  shall  make  this  date  really  notable 


THE  WORLD  OF  THE  PENNY  WISE  21 

by  so  bestirring  ourselves  in  regard  to  town  planning 
and  boy  and  girl  planning,  that  in  2220,  our  many  times 
great-grandchildren  shall  have  reason  to  give  hearty 
thanks  that  they  had,  in  us,  far-seeing  and  liberal- 
minded  ancestors. 

For,  after  all,  it  is  the  human  being,  not  the  wide  or 
narrow  street,  that  really  counts,  and  it  is  in  connection 
with  human  life  and  human  happiness  that  our  narrow- 
minded  economies  exhibit  their  most  lamentable  results. 
Take,  for  example,  the  blind.  There  are  at  least  4,000 
of  them  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts  alone ;  and  while, 
considering  what  they  lose,  they  are  remarkably  cheer- 
ful, and  while,  remembering  their  handicap,  an  aston- 
ishingly large  proportion  of  them  take  care  of  them- 
selves, they  are  an  economic  drag  upon  the  community, 
and  they  are,  too  often,  a  heavy  burden  to  themselves 
and  to  their  families.  And  the  worst  of  it  is  that  great 
numbers  of  them  are  conspicuous  examples  of  the  far- 
reaching  and  melancholy  effects  of  an  ignorant,  or  nig- 
gardly, "  penny  wisdom."  Here  is  a  little  girl  who 
must  go  through  life  in  darkness  and  dependence  because 
her  parents  were  too  poor,  or  too  untaught,  to  employ  a 
competent  person  at  her  birth.  Consequently,  when, 
a  few  days  old,  her  eyes  grew  red  and  swollen,  none  knew 
enough  to  put  a  drop  of  silver  solution  to  kill  the  destroy- 
ing germ ;  and,  for  want  of  two  cents'  worth  of  preven- 
tion, she,  guilty  of  nothing,  must  yet  pay  life-long,  costly 
penalty.  There  is  a  boy  whose  eyes  are  rapidly  being 
extinguished  by  a  form  of  tuberculosis;  but,  because 
there  is  no  one  who  will  spend  the  comparatively  few  dol- 


22  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

lars  necessary  to  get  him  to  fresh  air  and  good  food,  he 
must  pass  his  life  in  blindness,  and  the  community  must 
lose  his  productive  labor.  This  man  lost  his  sight  be- 
cause somebody  saved  a  few  cents  by  substituting  wood 
alcohol  for  grain  alcohol;  and  that  paltry  economy  is 
paid  for  by  years  of  darkness  borne  by  the  innocent  user 
of  this  poisonous  fraud.  That  man  was  blinded  by  a 
chip  from  a  tool  that  he  was  grinding,  his  employers 
having  saved  something  by  not  guarding  the  emery- 
wheel  with  an  inexpensive  shield.  Huge  areas  are 
scourged  with  trachoma,  a  disease  inducing  blindness, 
because,  when  the  infection  first  came  to  this  country, 
it  was  thought  too  costly  a  task  to  try  to  stamp  it  out. 
And  hundreds  are  going  through  life  with  half-vision, 
or  quarter-vision,  or  no  vision  at  all,  because  somebody, 
or  some  corporation,  or  some  school-board,  thought  it 
good  economy  to  cut  down  the  window  area,  or  to  use  a 
poor,  flickering  gas  jet,  or  to  subject  the  employees  or 
the  children  to  other  bad  conditions  destructive  to  the 
human  eye. 

Probably  the  greatest  existing  menace  to  civilization 
is  feeblemindedness,  an  incurable  malady  that  transmits 
itself  from  generation  to  generation  according  to  fairly 
well  understood  laws,  that  takes  many  insidious  forms, 
and  that  is  one  of  the  chief,  if  not  the  chief  source  of 
crime,  sexual  immorality,  drunkenness,  beggary  and 
general  misery.  To  stamp  it  practically  out  in  two  or 
three  generations,  and  thus  to  relieve  the  world  of  its 
heaviest  burdens,  would  be  entirely  possible  by  segre- 
gating all  the  recognized  feebleminded  so  as  to  prevent 


THE  WORLD  OF  THE  PENNY  WISE  23 

their  having  children  and  by  so  educating  the  commu- 
nity and  especially  those  concerned,  that  they  who  are 
what  may  be  called  "  carriers "  of  feeblemindedness, 
who  have  within  them,  that  is,  a  definite  tendency  to 
produce  feebleminded  offspring,  shall  refrain  from 
parenthood. 

To  segregate  and  educate  in  this  way,  however,  costs 
much  money,  almost  as  much,  for  the  whole  United 
States,  as  it  cost  to  maintain  the  war  in  Europe  for  one 
day.  Moreover,  it  costs  frankness  and  a  disregard  of 
Mrs.  Grundy  to  set  forth  the  plain  facts  concerning 
feeblemindedness.  Consequently  we  are  dealing  with 
this  vital  problem  with  the  utmost  "penny  wisdom," 
segregating  less  than  ten  per  cent,  of  the  known  feeble- 
minded and  doing  almost  nothing  in  the  way  of  educa- 
tion. Every  year,  therefore,  the  problem,  its  menace 
and  its  hideous  results,  are  getting  more  and  more 
expensive  and  more  and  more  unmanageable. 

"  Thrift,  thrift,  Horatio."  Sometimes  one  grows  as 
pessimistic  as  Hamlet  at  seeing  the  crimes  committed 
every  minute  in  the  blessed  name  of  economy.  How 
careful  we  New  Englanders  are,  how  we  pile  dollar 
upon  dollar  until  we  have  a  lot  to  invest  in  mortgages 
and  stocks  and  far-away,  dubious  mines ;  how  we  always 
look  on  all  sides  of  a  proposition  before  we  waste  a 
single  cent;  how  we  watch  the  market  to  see  when  to 
buy  and  when  to  sell;  how  we  keep  our  blooded  cattle 
free  from  taint,  our  horses  carefully  physicked,  even 
our  pigs  in  the  clover  of  perfect  sanitary  conditions; 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  how  we  throw  away  ourselves 


24 

and  our  children  and  our  children's  children,  because 
we  cannot  see  the  world-wide  difference  between  wise 
spending  and  silly  extravagance,  because  we  think  that 
every  kind  of  saving  is  always  true  economy,  because  we 
cannot  comprehend  that  we  are  here  not  to  serve  our- 
selves, but,  through  ourselves,  to  serve  civilization. 

So  far  as  we  can  read  the  riddle  of  the  universe,  this 
great,  rich  earth  of  ours  exists  mainly,  if  not  solely,  for 
the  purpose  of  breeding  men  and  women,  of  making 
them  strong,  thoughtful  and  genuinely  religious,  of  cre- 
ating out  of  them,  in  the  ages  to  come,  a  super-race  (to 
use  Nietzsche's  term)  that  shall  be  perfect  physically, 
wise  mentally  and  God-like  morally.  Yet,  with  this 
inconceivably  high  mission,  with  this  inexhaustible 
earth  subjected  to  our  use  in  order  that  we  may  fulfill 
that  mission,  we  slaughter  babies  by  the  thousands,  — 
why  ?  To  save  a  few  cents  in  the  price  of  milk,  to  save 
a  few  dollars  in  the  cost  of  training  youth  for  father- 
hood and  motherhood.  We  maim  and  stunt  and  blind 
our  boys  and  girls,  we  send  them  down  to  the  uttermost 
hell  of  moral  degradation,  —  why?  To  save  fifty  cents 
in  guarding  machinery,  to  get  a  few  more  dollars  out 
of  the  rent  of  tenements,  to  keep  the  school  budget  low, 
to  protect  the  vested  interests  of  some  fat  old  dowager 
or  some  gilded  fool.  We  utterly  squander  our  God- 
given  lives  by  cultivating  that  futile  thing,  society,  in- 
stead of  that  noble  thing,  our  minds ;  by  filling  our  houses 
with  furniture  instead  of  friends,  with  servants  rather 
than  mutual  service;  by  surrounding  ourselves  with 
possessions  and  obligations  that  feed  the  senses  while 


THE  WORLD  OF  THE  PENNY  WISE  25 

they  starve  the  soul ;  by  rearing  to  ourselves  monuments 
of  money  and  obsequiousness  and  flattery  that  fall,  when 
we  die,  like  a  house  of  cards;  instead  of  digging  deep 
the  foundations  of  lives  —  our  own  and  our  children's 
lives  —  whose  influence  shall  endure  forever,  support- 
ing, in  the  ages  to  come,  that  race  of  supermen  and 
superwomen  which  should  be  the  glorious  goal  of  all 
our  earthly  endeavor.  Who  knows  or  cares  anything 
about  the  gay  butterflies  of  the  French  court  who  made 
sport  of  Franklin  in  his  sober  garb;  and  who  does  not 
know  of  that  plain  son  of  Massachusetts  who  saved 
money  on  his  stockings  to  spend  it  on  his  mind?  Who 
can  remember  the  name  of  one  of  the  panic-stricken 
millionaires  who  rushed  to  Washington  upon  the  news 
of  the  ravages  of  the  "  Merrimac  "  and  virtually  ordered 
Lincoln  to  provide  a  vessel  to  stop  her  depredations? 
After  patiently  listening  to  them,  Lincoln  replied:  "  If 
I  were  as  rich  as  you  say  you  are,  if  I  were  as  wise  as  you 
think  you  are,  and  if  I  were  as  scared  as  I  see  you  are,  I 
would  provide  that  vessel  myself;  "  and  turned  on  his 
heel.  They,  in  every  sense  of  the  word,  are  dead;  but 
the  poor,  unfashionable  Kentuckian  grows  more  living 
every  day. 

Even  New  Englanders,  with  the  inherited  thrift  of 
generations  in  their  blood,  spend  and  spend  and  spend, 
upon  things  that  are  worse  than  useless ;  and,  hoping  to 
make  the  balance  even,  pinch  and  save  and  scrimp  on 
undertakings  which,  even  from  the  purely  material 
standpoint,  would  bring  vast  returns,  and  which,  from 
the  point  of  view  of  God,  are  exactly  what  we  men  and 


26  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

women  are  put  here  to  carry  through.  They  may  some- 
times  —  remembering  their  prudent  forebears  —  show  a 
little  shame  about,  and  make  a  feeble  apology  for,  their 
comparatively  harmless  extravagance;  but  of  their  nig- 
gardliness, often  colossally  far-reaching  in  its  harmful- 
ness,  they  are  always  vastly  proud. 

Take,  as  a  sort  of  composite  example,  the  conscien- 
tious father  in  what,  for  want  of  a  better  term,  we  call 
a  good,  middle-class  New  England  family.  When  his 
children  were  born  he  economized,  with  the  full  appro- 
bation of  everyone,  on  doctor  and  nurse ;  with  the  result 
that  his  wife  is  a  semi-invalid,  and  most  of  his  children 
have  congenital  malformations  or  weaknesses  that  re- 
duce materially  their  happiness  and  strength.  By  an 
economy  in  food  for  which  her  neighbors  all  commend 
her,  the  wife  has  made  permanent  her  own  semi-invalid- 
ism,  which  might  have  been  cured  by  proper  nutrition, 
has  kept  at  a  low  point  the  vitality  of  all  her  family,  and 
has  ruined  the  digestions  of  the  weaker  children.  Find- 
ing that  it  can  save  a  few  dollars  by  going  into  crowded 
quarters,  this  estimable  family  does  so,  thus  cutting 
itself  out  of  sunshine  and  fresh  air  worth  many  times 
the  difference  in  rent.  Since  the  furniture  and  carpets 
must  be  kept  looking  well  for  the  eyes  of  censorious 
callers,  the  children  are  rarely  allowed  to  play  at  home 
or  to  invite  their  friends;  so  those  growing  boys  and 
girls  get  their  physical  and  moral  education  on  the  street. 
The  carpets  remain  unspotted ;  the  children  do  not. 

The  father  being  too  busy  making  dollars,  and  the 
mother  being  too  busy  saving  them  on  essentials  and 


THE  WORLD  OF  THE  PENNY  WISE  27 

spending  them  on  non-essentials,  no  one  has  time  to 
form  the  children's  characters,  to  study  their  individ- 
ualities, or  to  give  them  anything  but  the  most  hap- 
hazard steering  through  the  puzzling  and  terrifying 
intricacies  of  adolescent  life.  Consequently  these  young 
people  enter  upon  the  responsibilities  of  fatherhood  and 
motherhood,  of  creating  homes,  or  assuming  citizenship, 
almost  totally  ignorant  of  what  these  responsibilities 
mean  and  of  how  they  should  be  met ;  and  they  are  for- 
tunate if,  through  an  ignorance  for  which  they  were  in 
no  way  to  blame,  they  have  not  already  unfitted  them- 
selves for  th£  transmission  of  clean  life  and  the  custody 
of  growing  souls. 

Penny  wisdom  as  it  concerns  the  hygiene  of  feeding, 
clothing  and  housing  of  children  and  youth  is  bad 
enough;  but  infinitely  more  damage  comes  from  penny 
wisdom  in  matters  that  concern  their  minds  and  souls. 
The  false  economies  that  affect  their  material  welfare 
are  mainly  savings  of  money;  the  false  economies  that 
react  disastrously  upon  their  mental  and  spiritual  wel- 
fare are  mainly  savings  of  ourselves,  a  grudging  and 
shirking  of  the  effort,  the  discomfort,  the  ceaseless  plan- 
ning and  watchfulness,  that  the  proper  rearing  of  boys 
and  girls  entails.  The  bodies  of  our  sons  and  daughters 
we  feed  (as  a  rule  unhygienically),  we  clothe  (in  slavish 
imitation  of  the  fashions),  we  shelter  (during  the  com- 
paratively unimportant  hours  of  sleep)  ;  but  the  real, 
enduring  part  of  them :  their  intellects,  their  souls,  their 
characters,  we  leave  to  ignorant  servants,  to  more  igno- 
rant street  companions,  to  zealous,  but  untrained,  Sun- 


28  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

day  school  teachers,  and  to  the  grievously  overburdened 
schools. 

Ah,  now  we  have  it!  There  is  certainly  no  "penny 
wisdom "  in  the  schools ;  we  fairly  pour  out  public 
moneys  on  public  education,  for  its  support  is  usually 
the  largest  item  in  the  budget.  But,  as  President  Eliot 
and  many  other  wise  men  and  women  have  pointed  out, 
we  spend,  but  we  spend  unwisely,  we  spend,  but  we  spend 
not  nearly  enough.  Here,  as  in  many  other  things,  we 
are  cursed  with  a  love  of  superficiality  and  of  making  a 
show.  Hence  we  put  up  magnificent  school  buildings 
expensively  equipped,  we  try  to  teach  everything  under 
the  sun  except  how  to  live,  and  we  take  the  cost  of  all 
this  elaboration  out  of  the  wages  of  the  teachers,  out 
of  the  future  efficiency  of  the  boys  and  girls.  What 
more  melancholy  spectacle  than  that  seen  in  so  many 
Western,  and  some  Eastern,  towns,  where  the  school- 
houses  loom  like  mountains  above  a  squalid  plain  of 
mean,  one-story  houses,  the  home,  where  the  child 
should  get  seven  eighths  of  his  education,  wholly  sub- 
ordinated to  the  schoolhouse  where,  at  the  best,  he  can 
get  but  about  one  eighth.  Having  "splurged"  in  the 
matter  of  bricks  and  mortar  and  curriculum,  we  must 
economize  on  human  beings;  and  female  labor  being 
cheaper  than  male,  and  untrained  labor  being  cheaper 
than  trained,  we  are  filling  our  schoolhouses  all  over  the 
United  States  with  poorly-paid,  unskilled  women,  many 
of  whom  regard  teaching,  not  as  a  high  profession,  but 
as  a  stopgap  until  the  happy  day  when  they  may  be 
released  by  marriage.  There  are,  of  course,  thousands 


2Q 

of  women  in  our  schools  who  know  how  to  teach,  who 
understand  what  their  profession  involves,  and  who  are 
giving  unsparingly  of  themselves  year  after  year  to 
secure  to  their  pupils  the  best  possible  education.  But 
the  fact  must  be  squarely  faced  that  this  exalted  type 
of  teacher  is  in  the  minority.  On  the  other  hand, 
through  our  false  economy  in  offering  beggarly  pay,  in 
failing  to  provide  adequate  training,  and  in  requiring 
one  teacher  to  "  educate  "  —  think  of  it !  —  forty,  fifty 
or  even  sixty  children  at  a  time,  we  are  putting  our  sons 
and  daughters,  —  we  are  putting  even  adolescent  boys 
and  young  men,  who  need  above  all  things  a  strong 
masculine  hand  during  these  decisive,  formative  years, 
into  the  care  of  well-meaning  but  untrained  and  utterly 
overburdened  spinsters  who  have  no  time  to  find  out 
what  their  pupils  ought  to  be  taught,  no  time  to  study 
or  strengthen  character,  no  time  to  get  the  boys  or  girls 
started  right  on  that  double  task  —  the  most  difficult 
and  complicated  in  life  —  of  preparing  to  make  a  decent 
living  while  at  the  same  time  developing  a  sterling  char- 
acter. An  inquiry  recently  addressed  to  a  great  num- 
ber of  eminent  engineers,  asking  them  to  name  the 
things  most  important  to  success  in  engineering,  re- 
sulted in  their  placing  first,  by  an  overwhelming  major- 
ity, the  one  word  "  character." 

The  very  fact,  however,  that  it  will  take  years  to  per- 
suade the  public  to  spend  wisely  and  really  generously 
upon  education,  makes  it  the  more  incumbent  upon 
fathers  and  mothers  to  spend  themselves,  not  on  mint 
and  anise  and  cummin  (which,  being  interpreted,  is 


SO  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

movies  and  pool  and  gossip  and  bridge  and  shopping), 
but  on  the  weightier  and  worth-while  activities  involved 
in  making  sound,  ambitious,  self-respecting  men  and 
women  out  of  their  boys  and  girls.  Because  the  aver- 
age school  works  against  the  health  of  our  sons  and 
daughters,  we  must  strive  all  the  harder  to  upbuild  that 
health.  Because  the  school  tends  to  stunt  the  body  and 
mind  and  even  the  soul  of  the  child,  we  must  all  the  more 
work  to  expand  those.  Because  the  school  still  depends 
upon  the  old,  bad  stimulus  of  competition,  we  must 
emphasize  all  the  more  the  beauty  of  cooperation,  of 
each  working  for  all  and  all  for  each.  Because  the 
school  puts  most  of  its  emphasis  upon  using  the  head, 
we  must  do  everything  we  can  to  provide  occupation  for 
the  body  and  the  hands.  Because  the  whole  school  sys- 
tem tends  to  make  the  child  a  mere  cog  in  a  wheel,  we 
must  do  all  in  our  power  to  strengthen  his  individuality. 
Because  the  school  grounds  teach  smuttiness  and  evil 
curiosity,  we  must  feel  the  greater  responsibility  for 
training  in  purity  and  reverence.  And  it  is  our  respon- 
sibility to  see  that  the  youth  is  headed  early  and  headed 
right  for  some  vocation  that  will  give  him,  not  a  mere 
living,  but,  what  is  far  more  important,  real  joy  in  living, 
the  keen  pleasure  that  comes  from  doing  a  thing  easily, 
effectively  and  with  ever-growing  power. 

To  consider  the  problem  merely  on  that  pecuniary 
basis  which  the  term  "  penny  wisdom  "  implies,  we  and 
our  neighbors,  their  children  and  ours,  are  without 
question  the  most  valuable  commodities  in  the  world. 
Weight  for  weight,  and  from  the  purely  material  stand- 


THE  WORLD  OF  THE  PENNY  WISE  31 

point,  gold  itself  is  not  more  precious;  for,  by  the  time 
a  boy  or  girl  is  ready  to  enter  the  high  school,  the  com- 
munity, including  his  parents,  have  spent  on  him,  at  the 
very  least,  $4,000.  On  the  assumption  that  he  should 
have  forty  good  working  years  ahead,  and  that  his  aver- 
age annual  earnings  will  be  at  least  $800,  he  should  con- 
tribute, after  paying  back  the  $4,000  which  he  has  cost 
it,  $28,000  to  the  world.  Multiply  this  by  the  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  healthy  boys  and  girls  who  are  reaching 
fourteen  every  year,  and  it  appears  that  the  world  has 
a  human  capital  almost  beyond  reckoning.  Sometimes 
the  nations,  going  stark  mad  as  in  the  fateful  year  1914, 
destroy  this  potential  human  capital  by  a  slaughtering 
more  hideous  than  any  shambles.  But  always  those 
nations  are  impairing  this  human  treasure  —  fortu- 
nately on  a  far  less  terrible  scale,  —  by  such  penny 
wisdom  as  already  suggested:  by  preventable  disease, 
by  avoidable  accidents,  by  vices  that  never  should  have 
been  allowed  to  get  root,  by  failure  to  fit  the  boy  or  girl 
for  the  work  suited  to  his  or  her  capacity,  and  by  a 
hundred  smug  measures  through  which,  in  order  to 
save  a  few  barren  dollars,  we  throw  away  many  fruitful 
lives.  One  does  not  need  to  follow  Hood  into  the  garret 
of  the  needlewoman  to  exclaim : 

"  Oh,  God,  that  bread  should  be  so  dear, 
And  flesh  and  blood  so  cheap !  " 

Yet,  startling  as  is  this  material  aspect  of  the  waste 
caused  by  penny  wisdom,  it  is  as  nothing  compared  with 
the  spiritual  significance  of  our  complacent,  false  econ- 


32  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

omies.  Here  is  every  one  of  us  made  sole  custodian  for 
at  least  half  a  century  of  an  image,  an  incarnation,  a 
veritable  portion,  —  I  speak  with  reverence,  —  of  God 
Himself.  Here  are  most  of  us  given,  in  addition,  the 
custodianship  of  one  or  three  or  more  younger  incar- 
nations of  that  ineffable  Majesty.  Thus  honored  and 
thus  trusted,  is  it  for  us  to  haggle  and  question  and 
doubt  about  the  wisdom  of  spending  ourselves  and  our 
capacities,  to  say  nothing  of  our  material  earnings,  for 
the  highest  possible  service  to  these  God-born  tenants 
of  our  own  and  our  children's  bodies  ?  Every  one  of  us 
is  given  some  talent,  be  it  only  that  of  turning  hand- 
springs, as  in  the  charming  story  of  "  Our  Lady's 
Mountebank,"  and  shall  we  bury  that  talent,  wrapping 
it  in  the  napkin  of  timidity,  of  idleness  or  of  pessimism, 
because  it  is  unconventional  or  fatiguing  or  not  worth 
while  to  put  it  to  active  use?  Never  again,  so  far  as 
we  know,  shall  we  have  the  incredibly  flattering  oppor- 
tunity to  show  what  we  can  do  with  this  great  gift  of 
life;  and  shall  we  fling  away  this  single  chance  by  har- 
nessing ourselves  to  stupid,  petty  economies  and  to 
penny-wise  evasions  of  the  risks  of  living,  as  Nietzsche 
calls  it,  "  dangerously"  ? 

To  save  money  is  wholly  commendable,  so  long  as 
one's  mind  is  fixed,  not  on  the  pennies  saved,  but  on  the 
dollars  to  be  later  spent.  To  conserve  one's  health  is 
praiseworthy,  so  long  as  one's  thoughts  are  centred,  not 
on  one's  pulse  and  breathing  and  digestion,  but  on  the 
longer  and  more  effective  service  that  a  sound  body  can 
give  to  the  world.  Economies  in  household  and  town 


THE  WORLD  OF  THE  PENNY  WISE  33 

and  State  are  at  the  very  basis  of  human  welfare,  pro- 
vided they  have  as  their  unvarying  object  the  conserva- 
tion of  social  good  and  the  destruction  of  social  evil. 
But  to  save  money  on  things  that  make  for  health,  — 
physical,  mental  and  moral;  to  save  money  when  to 
spend  is  to  secure  the  sound  education  of  boys  and  girls 
for  their  highest  usefulness  as  citizens,  parents  and 
human  beings;  to  save  money  on  those  city  and  town 
improvements  which  make  for  the  efficiency  and  well- 
being  of  all  the  people ;  to  save  money  on  measures  that 
safeguard  the  young  and  the  weak  against  temptation; 
to  economize  on  anything  which,  if  maintained  and 
encouraged,  would  lift  boys  and  girls,  men  and  women, 
one  single  step  nearer  to  the  high  and,  as  yet,  far-off 
ideals  of  civilization,  is  to  sow  dragon's  teeth  that  are 
certain  to  breed  a  vast  army  of  prolific  physical  and 
moral  evils  requiring  incalculable  future  struggle  to 
subdue. 

The  hourly  distinctions  and  choosings  that  must  be 
made  between  productive  economy  and  destructive  nig- 
gardliness, between  wise  spending  and  foolish  squan- 
dering, are  among  the  most  difficult  that  confront  us. 
But  these  things  we  do  actually  know :  that  for  an  indi- 
vidual to  save  his  money  (no  matter  how  little),  his 
strength  (no  matter  how  frail),  or  his  time  (no  matter 
how  limited),  when  it  is  a  question  of  measures  that 
affect  physical,  mental  or  moral  health,  that  concern 
sound  education,  that  promote  self-development  or 
child  development,  is  to  sell  his  birthright  for  a  mess  of 
pottage.  We  are  certain,  too,  that  for  a  community 


'34  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

to  economize  on  matters  that  make  for  the  good  morals, 
right  training,  efficiency  as  producers  and  consumers, 
and  the  general,  genuine  happiness  of  all  its  citizens,  is 
to  surrender  every  right  and  duty  of  democracy.  And 
we  know,  also,  for  history  is  ceaselessly  proving  it,  that 
all  real  progress,  all  sound  achievement,  all  lasting  ad- 
vance in  civilization,  has  come  from  and  through  those 
men  and  women,  those  communities,  those  states  and 
those  nations  that  have  freely  spent  themselves, 
their  resources,  their  physical,  intellectual  and  moral 
strength,  in  multiplying  material  wealth,  in  widening 
mental  horizons,  in  uplifting  spiritual  understanding, 
in  seeing  and  pursuing  splendid,  and  expensive,  visions. 
In  living  "  dangerously,"  —  dangerously  to  the  outlook 
of  mole-eyed  prudence,  dangerously  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  timid  and  slothful,  dangerously  according 
to  the  understanding  of  the  crab-like  conservative,  dan- 
gerously from  the  view-point  of  Mrs.  Grundy,  —  these 
men  and  these  women,  these  cities  and  these  states,  have 
always  found  life  by  spending  life,  and  it  is  they,  and 
they  only,  who  send  life  on  to  the  next  generation  a 
richer,  a  nobler  and  a  more  glorious  thing. 


SOCIALISM 

TO-DAY,  with  the  world  in  flux,  men  are  asking  them- 
selves, as  never  before,  Is  our  social  system  right  ?  Or 
are  we,  as  the  socialists  say,  in  a  state  of  anarchy,  with 
the  rich  growing  richer,  the  poor,  poorer,  and  all  becom- 
ing more  Godless  and  more  hopeless?  What  are  the 
signs  of  the  times  that  we  must  heed  for  our  safety  and 
how  shall  we  interpret  that  word,  "  Socialism,"  which 
threatens  as  never  before  ? 

Socialism  is  more  than  a  rallying-cry,  more  than  a 
passing  delusion ;  it  is  a  tremendous  human  force,  partly 
wrong,  partly  right,  with  which  Europe  is  contending, 
with  which  America  soon  must  reckon.  Moreover, 
there  are  two  socialisms :  the  "  Utopian,"  which  is  the 
fruit  of  the  political  revolutions  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, and  the  "  scientific,"  which  sprang  from  the  indus- 
trial revolutions  of  the  nineteenth.  The  former  did  an 
immense  work  in  compelling  reform  legislation,  it  gave 
birth  to  a  glorious  literature,  it  was  an  essential  phase 
of  progress  out  of  materialism;  but  it  was  and  must 
always  be  impossible  because  it  aims  to  reform  men 
through  human  institutions,  to  secure  ethical  reaction 
without  first  arousing  moral  action.  While  this  aurora 
of  Utopianism  was  fading  from  the  upper  ether  in  which 

35 


36  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

it  had  flamed  so  brilliantly,  the  stern  conditions  of  indus- 
trial growth  were  producing,  on  the  earth,  a  socialism 
of  far  other  aspect,  a  socialism  without  romance,  with- 
out illusions,  without  faith,  almost  without  hope. 

After  the  collapse  of  Utopian  socialism,  in  1848,  there 
followed  a  period  of  nearly  twenty  years  during  which 
the  socialists  made  no  demonstration  and  their  exist- 
ence was  almost  forgotten.  But  the  tremendous  indus- 
trial changes,  the  conversion  of  hand-labor  into  machine- 
labor,  had  given  rise,  inevitably,  to  a  new  socialism. 
This  first  took  definite  shape  in  the  "  International,"  an 
alliance  of  continental  workingmen,  formed  in  1864, 
carried  rapidly  into  prominence,  and  killed,  in  1871,  by 
its  complicity  in  the  horrors  of  the  Paris  Commune. 
The  second  and  permanent  organization  of  modern,  or 
scientific,  socialism  may  be  said  to  have  grown  out  of 
the  famous  book,  "  Capital,"  published  by  Karl  Marx 
in  1867.  Marx  is  already  out  of  date,  so  fast  has  the 
movement  progressed;  but  the  fundamental  principles 
of  his  book  are  still  those  of  that  large  and  growing 
body  of  men  and  women  who,  under  different  names  and 
with  different  details  of  organization  and  belief,  consti- 
tute the  social-democratic  party.  Clinging  to  this  party 
and  hopelessly  confused  with  it,  is  an  immense  fringe 
of  anarchists,  nihilists,  communists,  believers  in  coop- 
eration, nationalists,  Georgists,  socialists  of  the  chair, 
progressists,  Christian  socialists,  and  others  who,  with- 
out very  definite  principles  or  with  partial  ideas,  believe 
that  society  is  wrong  and  propose  all  sorts  of  ways,  good 
and  bad,  wise  and  foolish,  for  setting  it  right.  Social 


SOCIALISM  37 

democracy  alone  has  a  definite  belief,  a  positive  aim  and 
a  well-marked,  though  varied  means  of  reaching  that 
aim.  The  first,  or  radical,  wing  of  social  democracy 
believes  in  revolution  and  seizure  of  capital,  with  blood- 
shed if  necessary ;  the  second  believes  in  political  agita- 
tion and  in  the  reform  of  society  through  gradual  cap- 
ture of  the  governments ;  the  third  wing  maintains  that 
capital  itself,  by  concentration  in  huge  factories,  by  the 
formation  of  joint  stock  companies  and  trusts,  is  rapidly 
preparing  for  socialistic  organization,  and  that,  by  the 
exercise  of  a  little  patience,  the  great  social  revolution 
will  take  place  almost  of  its  own  accord. 

The  social  democrats,  and  all  socialists,  indeed,  be- 
lieve that  for  the  old  tyranny  of  kings,  priests  and  nobles 
there  has  been  substituted  a  new  and  worse  tyranny, 
that  of  the  bourgeoisie,  of  the  manufacturers,  merchants 
and  factors  who  have  originated  and  absorbed  an  enor- 
mous capital  and  whose  trade  interests  provoked  the 
conflicts  and  created  that  top-heavy  military  system  of 
the  late  nineteenth  century  which  brought  about  the 
great  war.  It  is  really  against  these  money-breeders 
that  modern  socialism  has  taken  up  arms,  and,  in  truth, 
the  injustices  against  which  it  fights  had  their  origin  in 
purely  industrial  conditions.  The  remedies  which  it 
proposes  are,  therefore,  for  the  most  part,  along  indus- 
trial lines. 

The  social  democrats  declare  that  the  workman  is 
now  nothing  more  than  a  slave ;  that  he  is  the  slave  not 
even  of  man  but  of  a  machine.  He  is,  they  maintain,  a 
wholly  wretched  and  helpless  dependent  of  our  com- 


38  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

plicated  factory  system,  and  the  miserable  living  that 
he  now  gains  as  a  servant  of  steam  or  electricity  is 
being  taken  away  from  him  by  the  ever  greater  per- 
fection of  machinery,  so  that  the  body  of  unemployed 
is  always  increasing  and,  if  it  is  not  provided  for, 
will  in  time  destroy  the  employed,  the  capitalists  and 
society  itself.  Karl  Marx  explains  this  alleged  slavery 
of  the  laborer  by  his  theory  of  surplus  value,  and 
he  argues  that  this  surplus  value  can  be  done  away 
with  only  by  putting  the  instruments  of  labor  into  the 
possession  of  the  laborers  themselves.  He  contends 
that  every  workman,  under  our  present  system  (and 
by  workman  he  means  a  man  who  does  not  control 
or  own  the  machinery  and  tools  with  which  he  works), 
gives  more  hours  of  labor  every  day  than  are  neces- 
sary for  the  subsistence  of  himself  and  those  depend- 
ing upon  him,  and  it  is  this  surplus  labor  which  the 
capitalist  seizes  and  coins  into  a  fortune.  Since  Marx 
believes  that  the  capitalist  has  no  function  in  society 
which  the  laborer  could  not  equally  well  perform,  he 
regards  the  property-holder  simply  as  a  legalized  rob- 
ber who,  by  luck,  cunning  or  fraud,  has  obtained  control 
of  the  instruments  of  labor  and,  through  possessing 
them,  is  able  to  drive  an  unfair  bargain  with  the  laborer. 
By  this  bargain  the  toiling  workman  receives  only 
enough  for  a  bare  living  while  the  useless  capitalist  is 
supported  in  luxury. 

The  capitalist,  in  his  defence,  may  point  out  the  impor- 
tant part  he  plays  in  originating,  building  up  and  main- 
taining the  enterprises  which  furnish  work  to  the 


SOCIALISM  39 

laborer,  he  may  show  that  were  it  not  for  his  constant 
watchfulness,  his  seeking  of  markets,  his  advancing  of 
money  to  pay  the  workmen,  his  warehousing  of  goods 
months  before  he  can  hope  to  receive  any  return  from 
them,  these  enterprises,  supporting  thousands  of  fam- 
ilies, would  fail.  He  may  urge  the  brain-work,  the 
anxiety,  the  discouragements  that  are  his;  the  tact,  the 
foresight,  the  courage  that  are  essential  to  success; 
finally,  he  may  show  that,  despite  these  qualities  and 
notwithstanding  ceaseless  endeavor,  capital  in  nine  cases 
out  of  ten  comes,  sooner  or  later,  to  shipwreck.  He 
may  point,  too,  to  the  almost  universal  dispersion  of 
great  fortunes  in  two  or  three  generations,  and  to  the 
great  moral,  educational  and  sanitary  good  that  has  been 
done  by  rich  men.  Such  arguments  are  vain.  The 
true  socialist  sees  only  the  marked  inequalities  of  for- 
tune, the  conspicuous  instances  of  pure  "luck,"  the 
many  idle  and  vicious  rich,  the  many  hopeless  and  de- 
graded poor;  and  he  declares  that  the  whole  system  is 
wrong,  that  so  long  as  the  present  conditions  prevail, 
the  non-possessing  laborer  must  be  the  helpless  slave 
of  the  possessing  capitalist.  This  wrong  state  of  society 
the  social-democrat  proposes  to  remedy  by  a  single  but 
far-reaching  step:  the  abolishing  of  private  ownership 
in  capital.  This  is  the  fundamental  doctrine  of  the 
modern  "scientific"  school;  its  definite  aim  is  the 
"  socialization,"  as  it  is  called,  of  capital.  That  is,  the 
social-democrats  propose  to  take  out  of  private  hands 
all  tools,  machinery,  land,  food  supplies,  means  of  trans- 
portation and  other  things  constituting  capital  and  to 


40  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

make  them  the  property  of  the  state,  to  be  used  for  the 
good  of  all.  The  income  from  this  "  socialized  "  cap- 
ital is  not  to  be  divided  equally,  —  that  would  be  com- 
munism, and  they  repudiate  communism  even  more 
fiercely  than  anarchism  —  but  it  is  to  be  divided  equi- 
tably, i.e.,  every  man  is  to  be  rewarded  according  to  his 
capacity  and  his  industry.  His  daily  labor,  in  other 
words,  is  to  be  appraised  and  put  to  his  credit;  and 
against  this  labor  fund  of  his  he  is  to  be  allowed  to 
draw  such  supplies  of  food,  clothing,  furniture,  amuse- 
ments, etc.,  as  he  may  wish.  Money  is  to  be  abolished 
as  unnecessary,  and  with  it  will  vanish  interest,  banking 
and  all  forms  of  credit.  A  man  may  spend  his  labor 
fund  as  he  pleases,  he  may  hoard  it  and  he  may  bequeath 
his  savings;  but  he  cannot  invest  the  labor  that  is  cred- 
ited to  him  nor  can  he  in  any  way  increase  it  except  by 
addition.  His  only  business  dealings  will  be  with  the 
government  which,  through  elected  officials  and  com- 
mittees, will  wholly  control  production  and  distribution. 
Shops  and,  to  a  large  extent,  freight  transportation  will 
disappear  and  every  citizen,  so  far  as  is  possible,  will 
have  his  wants  supplied  from  his  immediate  neighbor- 
hood. The  local  officials  or  committees  will  establish 
warehouses  for  the  storage  of  commodities  and  will 
determine  what  shall  be  raised  and  what  manufactured 
in  their  district,  what  commodities  shall  be  exported, 
so  to  speak,  from  their  district  and  what  goods  shall  be 
imported.  These  or  other  local  officials  will  determine 
the  worth  of  everyone's  labor  and  fix  its  exchange  value 
in  terms  of  the  commodities  contained  in  the  public 
warehouses. 


SOCIALISM  41 

Under  this  system,  the  socialists  believe,  idlers,  pau- 
pers and  the  unemployed  will  disappear,  since  he  who 
would  eat  must  work  and  he  who  works  may  eat.  The 
state  will  provide,  of  course,  for  the  aged,  the  defective 
and  the  sick,  but  these  dependents  will  be  supported  by 
right,  not,  as  now,  by  charity.  Courts  of  civil  law, 
whose  existence  rests  upon  property,  will  vanish;  and 
the  criminal  courts  will  soon  fall  into  disuse,  so  great, 
they  believe,  will  be  the  decrease  in  crime,  its  three  chief 
sources:  poverty,  ignorance  (education  being  absolutely 
compulsory)  and  drunkenness  (the  liquor  traffic  being 
suppressed  or  strictly  limited)  having  been  taken  away. 
These  are  but  a  few  of  the  benefits  that,  in  the  eyes  of 
the  socialists,  will  follow  this  single  step:  the  abolition 
of  private  ownership  in  capital. 

But  what  may  be  said  on  the  other  side  ?  First,  what 
are  some  of  the  practical  difficulties  in  the  way  of  the 
"  socialization  "  of  capital  ?  Only  extreme  socialists 
advocate  the  forcible  seizure  of  private  property.  The 
majority  agree  that  the  present  owners  either  should  be 
directly  paid  or  should  receive  a  fair  life  income  on 
their  capital.  But  how  are  these  plans  for  compensa- 
tion to  be  carried  out  ?  The  state  cannot  borrow,  since 
credit  is  abolished,  and  its  only  available  resources  con- 
sist in  the  property  which  it  has  just  seized.  It  must 
pay  for  this  confiscated  property,  then,  by  means  of 
that  very  property  itself,  which  is,  of  course,  absurd. 
If,  choosing  the  other  horn  of  the  dilemma,  the  state 
should  compensate  the  capitalists  by  giving  them  a  fair 
income  for  25,  50  or  75  years,  it  would,  seemingly,  con- 


42  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

tinue  them  as  a  favored  class,  able  to  save  and  leave 
comparative  fortunes  to  their  children.  The  socialists, 
however,  say  No;  that  these  capitalists  are  to  be  given 
an  income  in  perishable  goods,  in  food,  drink  and  amuse- 
ments, so  that  the  millionaires  will  be  overwhelmed  with 
things  that  they  can  neither  use  nor  sell.  Still  it  is  not 
likely  that  these  dispossessed  property-holders,  now  so 
grasping,  will  give  up  even  this  useless  and  embarrass- 
ing income  and  as,  presumably,  their  capital  now  pro- 
duces almost  to  its  fullest  capacity,  it  cannot  be  made  to 
yield,  under  the  new  system,  much  more  than  enough 
to  provide  for  these  ex-capitalists.  Therefore,  for  one 
generation  at  least,  the  workingman  must  labor  chiefly 
to  heap  up  perishable  goods  for  his  former  masters. 
Plainly  compensation  is  not  feasible,  and  those  radical 
socialists  who  echo  Proudhon's  cry:  "  Property  is  rob- 
bery," and  demand  its  seizure  without  payment  are  in 
the  right. 

Let  us  suppose,  however,  that  in  some  way,  with 
or  without  bloodshed,  the  state  has  dispossessed  the 
property-owners,  what  then?  Who  is  to  manage  this 
immense  capital,  these  factories  and  railroads,  these 
shops  and  other  thousand  enterprises?  Elected  com- 
mittees? And,  if  so,  who  or  what  will  insure  their 
efficiency,  their  faithfulness,  their  freedom  from  cor- 
ruption? How  will  it  be  certain  that  the  state  gets  the 
full  income  from  its  capital?  Have  we  been  so  fortu- 
nate in  our  present  socialistic  enterprises,  in  our  post- 
office,  for  example,  that  we  can  look  forward  trustingly 
to  a  time  when  every  enterprise  shall  be  in  the  hands  of 


SOCIALISM  43 

political  committees  ?  But,  say  the  socialists,  corruption, 
self-seeking  and  incompetence  will  disappear  from  the 
socialistic  state,  because  the  best  men  will  rise  to  the 
top  and  neither  they  nor  the  lesser  men  will  do  wrong, 
since  it  will  be  to  their  greater  interest  to  do  right.  The 
man  who  cheats  or  falsifies  or  adulterates  or  slights  his 
work  will  suffer  with  the  rest  and,  therefore,  will  have 
no  temptation  to  do  wrong.  Will  the  best  men  rise  to 
the  top  and  burden  themselves  with  inconceivably  hard 
tasks  of  administration  when  they  can  be  comfortable 
and  happy  by  remaining  near  the  bottom  and  perform- 
ing simpler  duties  ?  Will  the  mere  fact  that  they  suffer 
with  the  rest  deter  men  from  stealing,  from  putting  up 
political  "  jobs,"  from  tyrannizing  and,  in  a  hundred 
ways,  abusing  their  power  ?  It  is  difficult  to  conceive  of 
any  transformation  that  in  one  year,  or  in  fifty  years, 
will  eliminate  the  ward-politician  and  will  free  men  in 
authority  from  the  temptations  that  come  with  power 
and  with  the  handling  of  large  capital  in  which  their 
ownership  is  only  indirect. 

Let  us  grant,  however,  that  the  confiscation  of  prop- 
erty is  happily  accomplished  and  that  the  state  is  in  the 
hands  of  perfectly  honest  and  fully  competent  men  and 
women.  How  are  these  officials  to  settle  questions  of 
demand  and  supply  for  a  hundred  million  people  or  even 
for  an  average  community?  We  have  now  a  wonder- 
fully responsive,  though  crude,  regulator  of  production 
in  the  fluctuation  of  prices.  If  a  commodity  is  falling 
short,  the  price  rises,  a  stimulus  is  given  to  its  produc- 
tion and,  when  the  temporary  shortage  is  made  up,  the 


44  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

price  falls  again,  production  slackens,  not  to  increase 
until  a  rise  in  price  again  arouses  it.  But  under  the 
socialistic  state,  prices  are  to  remain  fixed,  this  com- 
mercial thermometer  will  be  lacking,  and  the  govern- 
ment will  have  little  more  than  guess  work  to  help  its 
agents  in  determining  what  shall  be  produced,  when 
and  by  whom.  In  view  of  this  difficulty,  the  tendency 
will  be  to  force  men  to  limit  their  wants  and  by  so  doing, 
a  sameness  of  life,  full  of  harm  to  human  progress,  will 
be  brought  about.  Furthermore,  the  government  will 
have  to  reckon  with  that  very  uncertain  factor,  the 
weather.  The  million  acres  of  wheat  ordered  to  be 
sown  in  the  spring  may  be  reduced  by  blight  to  500,000 
acres.  An  unusually  mild  winter  may  curtail  immensely 
the  demand  for  the  woolens  manufactured  in  advance, 
and,  in  many  ways,  the  weather,  as  well  as  the  fickleness 
of  human  wants  and  fashions,  will  confuse  and  upset 
the  government's  calculations.  A  further  disturbing 
element  is  the  fact  that  the  value  of  commodities  in  use 
fluctuates  greatly  and  is  often  wholly  out  of  proportion 
to  the  value  of  the  labor  that  has  been  spent  upon  them. 
This  is  a  point  with  which  Marx  deals  in  a  very  unsat- 
isfactory way.  He  acknowledges  the  uncertainties  and 
fluctuations  of  values,  but  apparently  does  not  look  upon 
them  as  fatal  to  that  axiom  which,  using  his  favorite 
rule  of  three,  he  states  as  follows :  "  The  value  of  one 
commodity  is  to  the  value  of  any  other,  as  the  labor- 
time  necessary  for  the  production  of  the  one  is  to  that 
necessary  for  the  production  of  the  other."  Later 
socialists,  led  by  Schaeffle,  have  brought  out  very  clearly 


SOCIALISM  45 

this  flaw  in  Marx's  reasoning,  and  there  has  long  been 
a  bitter  war  among  the  social-democrats  over  this  weak 
point  in  his  triumphant  doctrine. 

But  these  practical  difficulties  in  the  way  of  socialism 
ought  not  to  discredit  it.  No  effort  in  overcoming  them 
would  be  too  great  provided  the  results  were  to  be  such 
as  its  friends  predict.  To  the  mind  of  the  non-socialist, 
however,  the  moral  effect  of  socialism,  as  it  is  preached 
by  the  social-democrats,  would  be  so  bad,  the  social  con- 
dition that  would  be  brought  about  by  it  would  be  so 
infinitely  worse  than  our  present  tolerable,  though  im- 
perfect status,  that  the  practical  obstacles  fade,  by  com- 
parison, into  insignificance. 

It  is  maintained  by  the  socialists  that  the  hard  indus- 
trial conditions  of  which  they  so  bitterly  complain  are 
due,  first,  to  the  private  ownership  of  capital  and,  sec- 
ondly, to  the  competition  which  the  existence  of  private 
capital  and  its  struggle  for  gain  make  necessary.  Many 
of  their  writers,  indeed,  do  not  blame  the  capitalist  for 
his  alleged  tyranny,  but  grant  that  he,  too,  is  a  victim  of 
circumstances  by  which  he  is  compelled  to  lower  wages, 
multiply  machinery,  increase  his  output  and  adulterate 
his  goods,  merely  that  he  may  keep  up  in  that  struggle 
for  existence  whose  horrors  the  socialists  paint  in  dark- 
est colors.  Is  private  capital,  however,  a  totally  un- 
necessary factor  in  civilization  and  is  this  competition 
which  it  arouses  such  a  hideous  nightmare  as  the  social- 
ists would  have  us  believe?  The  would-be  abolisher  of 
capital  becomes  rather  hysterical  when  he  describes  the 
crimes  of  competition.  'The  industrial  world  is  not  a 


46  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

jungle  filled  with  cunning  and  bloodthirsty  beasts;  and 
the  individual  capitalist  does  a  work  in  society  that  can 
never  be  satisfactorily  performed  by  the  state ;  for  self- 
interest  and  the  force  of  competition,  by  their  very 
nature,  compel  him  to  promote  the  general  industrial 
welfare  by  cheapening  and  perfecting  processes  of  man- 
ufacture, by  multiplying  and  quickening  means  of  trans- 
portation, by  extending  commerce  and  by  making  his 
products  more  finished  and  more  artistic.  His  interest 
forces  him  to  respond  instantly  to  the  fluctuations  of 
demand  and  to  create  and  stimulate  new  wants.  By  this 
selfish  stimulation  he  exerts  a  steady  upward  pressure 
upon  the  standard  of  good  living  and  becomes  not  only 
a  great  industrial  but,  still  more,  a  mighty  moral  force. 
The  workman  often  suffers,  without  doubt,  through  bad 
adjustment  of  the  commercial  machinery,  from  greed, 
fraud  and  other  vices  of  which  capital  has  its  full  share ; 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  he  gains  vastly  more  than  he 
could  possibly  lose  through  the  competition  of  trade. 
With  rare  exceptions,  wages  are  steadily  rising,  the 
working  day  is  shortening,  work  itself  is  growing  easier. 
Machinery  and  competition  have  done  this  by  cheapen- 
ing products,  by  multiplying  through  mechanism  the  pro- 
ducing capacity  of  men,  by  putting  the  drudgery  of  pro- 
duction into  the  patient  hands  of  steam.  If  the  rich 
are  growing  richer,  which,  in  view  of  the  rapid  fall  in 
rates  of  interest,  is  very  doubtful,  the  poor  are  growing 
richer,  too,  not  only,  as  the  savings-banks  show,  by  what 
they  save  but,  far  better,  by  what  they  spend;  by  the 
inclination  and  the  opportunity  they  have,  every  day 


SOCIALISM  47 

more  freely,  to  share  in  those  comforts,  conveniences 
and  public  improvements  that  are  the  fruit  of  compe- 
tition and  are  the  property  of  rich  and  poor  alike. 

Abstractly  it  does  seem  wrong  that  A  should  be  rich 
while  B,  more  worthy  and  intelligent,  is  poor;  but  it 
seems  quite  as  wrong  that  the  Hottentot  should  be  born 
in  South  Africa  rather  than  in  New  York  City.  Chance 
plays  a  tremendous  part  in  life  and  the  overcoming  of 
its  disadvantages  is  an  important  element  in  human 
growth.  The  immediate  and  passing  effects  of  the  law 
of  chance  are  often  bad,  but  the  law  itself  is  at  the  very 
foundation  of  human  progress.  The  inequalities  that 
men  must  strive  against  to  overcome,  the  uncertainty  of 
subsistence,  the  hardships  and  difficulties  that  must  be 
surmounted,  the  never-ending  fight  for  life,  the  disap- 
pointments and  sorrows  that  make  that  life  doubly  hard, 
—  these  are  the  very  things  that,  in  the  past,  have 
impelled  men  to  make  life  as  tolerable  as  it  is  and,  in  the 
future,  will  force  them  to  make  it  still  more  worth  living. 
"  Difficulties,"  says  Epictetus,  "  are  things  that  show 
what  men  are  .  .  .  Remember  that  God,  like  a  gymnastic 
trainer,  has  pitted  you  against  a  rough  antagonist.  For 
what  end?  That  you  may  be  an  Olympic  conqueror; 
and  this  cannot  be  without  toil."  Since  the  dawn  of  the 
race  man  has  been  compelled  to  struggle  against  the 
outward  forces  that  tried  to  keep  him  cold,  naked,  hun- 
gry and  a  prey  to  circumstance,  against  the  inward 
forces  that  tended  to  make  a  beast  of  him.  But  by  this 
struggling,  he  has  practically  abolished  cold,  famine  and 
pestilence,  he  has  annihilated  time  and  space,  he  has 


48 

converted  the  destructive  forces  of  nature  into  willing 
servants,  he  has  made  a  decent,  companionable  creature 
of  himself.  Through  struggle,  in  short,  he  has  evolved 
civilization  out  of  savagery.  But  the  struggle  has  not 
been  limited  to  a  fight  with  nature;  that  would  have 
brought  man  only  to  a  state  of  barbarism.  Civilization 
and  its  benefits  have  been  reached  through  the  struggle 
of  man  with  man,  that  is,  through  competition.  It  is 
the  desire  to  excel  —  to  be  first,  in  war,  in  love,  in  indus- 
try, that  has  brought  man  to  his  present  comparative 
ease  of  life.  Every  step  forward  out  of  barbarism  has 
been  made  through  the  desire  of  someone  to  be  a  little 
stronger,  a  little  more  respected,  a  little  richer,  a  little 
more  luxurious  than  his  neighbor.  From  the  collective 
selfishness  of  individuals  has  resulted  the  good  of  so- 
ciety. But  is  external  nature  so  tame,  are  we  so  raised 
above  our  old  savage  selves,  that  we  now  may  say :  "  let 
struggle  cease;  let  us  rest  and  enjoy  the  fruits  of  the 
battles  that  our  fathers  fought "  ?  Surely  not.  We 
know  too  well  how  little  transforms  men  into  animals, 
how  quickly  the  unopposed  forces  of  nature  take  advan- 
tage of  us,  to  dare  to  cease  struggling.  Socialism,  how- 
ever, would  inevitably  allow  man  to  relax  in  his  fight  for 
human  progress  and,  soon,  not  only  would  humanity  be 
stagnant,  but  it  would  have  lost  much  of  that  which  has 
been  so  hardly  earned.  Sane  men  do  nothing  without 
a  motive.  Their  motives  for  progress  thus  far  have 
been  self-preservation,  love  and  rivalry.  What  are  the 
motives  that  will  govern  the  new,  socialistic  state? 
Simply  abstract  goodness  and  the  spirit  of  philanthropy. 


SOCIALISM  49 

The  general  love  of  mankind  is  to  take  the  place,  not  only 
of  self-love,  but  of  that  stronger  motive,  family  love, 
which  now  is  the  spur  to  most  of  us.  To-day,  in  gen- 
eral, men  struggle  and  save  and  do  their  best  because  of 
the  wife  and  children,  the  father  and  mother,  the 
brothers  and  sisters  who  depend  upon  them.  By  work- 
ing and  saving  and  doing  his  duty  a  man  gives  his  family 
security,  happiness  and  perhaps  comfort;  he  educates 
his  children  and  assures  them  a  fairer  start  than  he  had ; 
he  makes  himself  and  his  little  group  of  some  conse- 
quence in  the  narrow  circle  of  his  neighborhood.  The 
harder  the  struggle,  —  unless  it  kill  him,  and  the  propor- 
tion of  such  deaths  is  small,  —  the  greater  his  satisfac- 
tion in  its  success.  We  have  not  yet  reached  a  point,  it 
will  be  centuries  before  we  do,  where  abstract  love  and 
general  duty  can  be  made  so  strong  a  motive  for  us  to 
do  right,  to  work,  to  improve  ourselves,  as  are  these 
hard,  concrete  duties  and,  if  you  please,  these  selfish 
affections  that  now  centre  in  the  family  group.  What 
Pestalozzi  called  the  Trinity  of  love :  father,  mother, 
child,  has  been  the  slow  growth  of  centuries,  and  it  is 
the  nucleus  of  civilization.  This  nucleus  the  socialistic 
state  will  inevitably  destroy.  While  few  of  the  better 
sort  of  socialists  actually  propose  to  disintegrate  the 
family  group,  hardly  one  of  them  but  scoffs  at  it  as  a 
selfish,  outgrown  relation,  and  all  look  forward  to  merg- 
ing it  into  their  ideal  social  group  whose  ties  are  not  of 
blood  but  of  human  brotherhood.  All  socialists  claim 
that  the  family  is  a  creation  of  property  and  that  with  the 
abolition  of  property  the  tie  will  weaken  and  men  and 


50  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

women  will  move  out  of  the  narrow  circle  of  household 
interests  into  the  free  air  of  human  brotherhood.  They 
are  right  in  maintaining  that  socialism  will  dissolve  the 
family,  for  it  will  destroy  the  sense  of  responsibility 
upon  which,  chiefly,  the  family  rests ;  they  are  right,  too, 
in  asserting  that  the  family  group  is  based  largely  upon 
property;  but  they  are  criminally  wrong  in  viewing 
lightly  the  destruction  of  the  household  and  in  demand- 
ing that  its  basis,  property,  be  taken  away.  For  the 
home-property  is  not,  as  they  would  have  us  believe,  the 
spoil  that  one  group  has  captured  from  another;  it  is 
not  the  selfish  hoarding  which  the  family  must  fight  for. 
The  home-property  represents  obligation,  it  represents 
the  work  of  the  father,  the  saving  of  the  mother,  joined 
to  provide  proper  education,  —  using  the  word  in  its 
widest  sense — for  their  children.  It  is  the  stern 
"ought"  of  duty  made  tangible.  It  is  the  unit  of  so- 
ciety which,  without  it,  would  be  a  herding  of  cattle  hav- 
ing no  higher  motives  than  the  satisfaction  of  hunger 
and  desire. 

Finally,  the  agitation  for  socialism,  especially  by  men 
of  influence,  has  the  increasingly  bad  result  of  befogging 
the  real  issues  in  human  progress,  of  turning  attention 
away  from  true  and  pressing  evils  towards  remote  and 
semi-visionary  ones.  Society  suffers  to-day  not  from 
the  sins  of  government  or  the  greed  of  capital,  but  from 
the  ignorance  and  vice  of  the  individual.  We  have 
poverty  and  disease  and  anguish  all  about  us,  not  be- 
cause a  few  are  too  rich  and  many  are  too  poor,  but 
because  all,  rich  and  poor,  are,  through  ignorance  or 


SOCIALISM  51 

indifference,  disobeying  the  moral  law.  The  problem 
of  to-day  is  not  how  to  reform  society  but  how  to  reform 
the  individuals  who  compose  it.  The  offenders  against 
social  order  are  not  alone  the  idle  rich  who  have  stolen 
the  land  and  the  grasping  capitalists  who  grind  the 
faces  of  the  poor;  the  real  destroyers  of  the  state  are 
those  men  and  women  who,  knowing  the  right,  do 
wrong;  those  who,  heedlessly  or  wrongly,  enter  into 
marriage ;  those  parents  who,  bringing  children  into  the 
world,  feel  no  responsibility  for  their  physical  and  moral 
growth ;  those  citizens  who,  having  votes,  use  them  care- 
lessly or  dishonestly  or  throw  them  away;  those  young 
men  and  women  who,  having  minds  and  consciences, 
waste  the  first  and  smother  the  second;  those  hundreds 
of  thousands  who,  with  all  civilization  before  them,  are 
content  to  vegetate.  Only  those  rich  are  guilty  who 
fail  to  make  good  use  of  their  greater  opportunities,  and 
set  examples  of  folly,  selfishness  and  vice  for  the  poor 
to  imitate.  No  man,  rich  or  poor,  owes  anything  to 
the  state  except  to  do  his  duty  as  a  citizen  and  to  live 
an  honest,  self-improving  life.  But  this  is  a  very  large 
debt.  If  everyone  who  could,  paid  this  obligation,  the 
"  submerged  tenth,"  who  are  so  steeped  in  misery  that 
they  cannot  do  their  duty  and  live  honest  lives,  would 
soon  be  so  reduced  that  there  would  be  no  social  problem 
left. 

In  bringing  about  this  result,  in  teaching  duty  and 
right  living  to  the  poor  as  well  as  to  the  rich,  socialism 
has  its  great  work  to  do.  It  is  vain  for  it  to  attempt  to 
upset  those  laws  of  human  progress  that  are  rooted  not 


$£  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

only  in  history  but  in  man's  very  nature.  It  wastes  its 
strength,  it  perverts  its  power.  The  aid  of  socialism,  of 
the  unselfish  union  of  men,  is  needed,  not  in  regulating 
industry,  but  in  solving  the  moral  problems  that  indus- 
trial and  social  life  create ;  in  uplifting  the  individual  by 
the  force  of  helpful  association ;  in  destroying  abuses  by 
the  power  of  united  action;  in  showing  the  beauty  and 
economy  of  the  golden  rule. 

The  greatest  need  of  to-day  is  to  educate  the  public 
conscience;  but,  to  do  so,  the  individual  consciences,  of 
which  public  opinion  is  the  sum,  must  be  aroused  and 
taught.  Acts  of  moral  legislation,  public  agitation  for 
reform,  aid  greatly  in  this  direction.  Every  wise  re- 
form-law that  is  enforced  not  only  is  educational  in 
itself  but  makes  the  public  conscience  more  sensitive  to 
other  abuses,  more  ready  to  correct  them.  Nothing, 
indeed,  is  outside  the  scope  of  socialistic  legislation;  but 
a  sharp  distinction  must  always  be  made  between  law- 
making  and  law-meddling,  between  a  temporary  melio- 
ration of  individuals  and  the  ultimate  good  of  society. 
.Within  these  absolute  bounds  education,  health,  morals, 
all  are  fit  subjects  for  regulation;  and  in  many 
additional  directions  the  state  may  properly  limit  the 
individual.  But  not  all  legislation,  even  though  it  be 
flawless  in  theory,  is  good  in  practice.  It  may  be  unwise 
merely  because  it  cannot  be  enforced;  it  may  be  really 
bad  because  its  final  effect  will  be  worse  than  that  of 
the  abuse  it  has  tried  to  correct.  The  test  questions 
regarding  a  socialistic  act  are :  "  Is  it  class  legisla- 
tion? Is  there  a  strong  and  stubborn  public  sentiment 


SOCIALISM  53 

that  will  resist  its  enforcement  ?  Does  it  interfere  with 
the  proper  liberty  of  the  good  citizen?  Finally,  and 
most  important,  does  it  deaden  or  weaken  the  sense  of 
individual  responsibility  ?  "  Hard  questions,  not  always 
soluble  except  in  the  light  of  dearly  bought  experience; 
but,  if  asked  regarding  much  of  the  proposed  legislation 
of  the  socialists,  of  many  acts  of  our  own  and  the  Euro- 
pean governments,  the  answer  is  too  plainly,  "  Yes." 
Social  democracy,  were  it  realized,  would  benefit  the 
few  lazy  and  incompetent  at  the  expense  of  the  many 
industrious;  it  would  interfere  with  the  inalienable  and 
lawful  right  of  the  individual  to  be  the  chooser,  within 
the  narrow  bounds  that  God  has  placed,  of  his  own 
destiny;  it  would  be  not  only  contrary,  but  fatal,  to  that 
public  conscience,  still  so  feeble,  which  civilization  has 
nursed  into  conscious  being;  in  short,  it  would  confuse 
or  take  from  men  and  women  what  slight  sense  of  duty, 
what  incomplete  self-reliance  they  now  possess,  per- 
suading them  that  their  industrial  and  moral  welfare 
does  not  rest  mainly  with  themselves,  but  with  some  out- 
ward power  upon  which  they  may  lean  and  shift  all 
responsibility  for  their  mistakes  and  sins. 

Under  socialism  there  would  be  for  a  time,  without 
doubt,  greater  enjoyment  for  a  greater  number  of  indi- 
viduals. But  this  temporary  ease  and  pleasure  would 
be  bought  at  the  cost  of  courage,  ambition,  self-reliance 
and  those  more  divine  qualities  which  now  impel  us,  we 
scarcely  know  how  or  why,  to  moral  action,  and  force 
the  majority  of  us  to  carry  out  the  eternal  scheme  by 
leaving  the  world  a  little  better  than  we  found  it.  A 
fearful  price  to  pay.! 


THE   "POLITICAL  ANIMAL" 

AMERICANS  are  good-natured,  quick  to  see  the  humor 
rather  than  the  hurt  of  lawlessness,  fond  of  euphemistic 
names  for  ugly  things.  The  greatest  of  political  needs, 
therefore,  is  that  of  plain  speaking.  American  democ- 
racy is  in  danger,  not  from  the  "  masses  "  and  not  from 
the  European  "  hordes,"  but  from  native,  well-edu- 
cated and  socially  respected  sinners.  Consequently  the 
duty  of  every  good  citizen  is  to  call  these  malefactors, 
not  statesmen,  not  financiers,  not  magnates,  not  cap- 
tains of  industry,  not  honorable  senators,  but  just  com- 
mon thieves.  The  result,  if  persisted  in,  would  be  as 
electrical  as  was  the  plain  speaking  of  the  child  in 
Andersen's  story  of  "  The  Emperor's  New  Clothes." 
The  whole  court  had  been  humoring  his  majesty  in  the 
preposterous  notion  that  he  possessed  a  magic  suit  of 
clothes  which  made  him  invisible,  and  they  would  have 
pretended  endlessly  had  not  a  small  boy  cried  out :  "  The 
Emperor  is  naked,"  as  in  truth  he  was. 

For  selfish  reasons,  for  partisan  reasons,  for  minor 
reasons  which  we  cannot  analyze,  but  mainly  for  the 
reason  that  we  lack  moral  courage  to  say  impolite  things 
about  men  who  have  power  and  authority,  we  go  on 
pretending  that  Governor  A's  iniquities,  that  Mayor  B's 
thievery,  that  Senator  C's  oppression  of  the  widow  and 

54 


THE  "POLITICAL  ANIMAL"  55 

orphan  are  all  invisible ;  and  we  smirk  and  toady  and  sa- 
laam to  these  magnates  until  some  person  or  newspaper 
with  the  courage  of  simple  truth  points  to  the  great  man 
and  declares  not  only  that  he  is  naked,  but  that  he  is  tat- 
tooed from  head  to  foot  with  the  ineradicable  record  of 
his  miserable  deeds.  Thereupon  some  of  us  stand 
aghast,  others  run  for  the  whitewash  brush,  while  still 
others  declare  that  the  word  "  naked  "  is  in  shocking 
bad  taste;  but  the  plain  people,  if  only  the  truth-teller 
be  sufficiently  persistent,  will  finally  see  the  humbug  and 
hypocrisy  of  the  whole  business  and  will  drive  the  crim- 
inal from  his  power  and  plundering. 

Moreover,  when  we  do  try  to  improve  the  political 
situation  we  follow,  as  a  rule,  the  example  of  Mrs.  Peter- 
kin  who,  finding  that  she  had  salted  instead  of  sugared 
her  tea,  rather  than  to  brew  a  fresh  cup,  sought  in  every 
conceivable  way  to  neutralize  the  salt.  We  eagerly  try 
all  manner  of  legislation-nostrums,  corrective  ordinances 
and  systems  of  checks  and  balances,  rather  than  to 
go  straight  to  the  root  of  the  matter  and  to  demand  plain 
honesty  and  ordinary  efficiency  in  all  branches  of  the 
public  service.  There  are,  of  course,  political  failures 
due  to  the  fact  that  we  are  still  experimenting  with  the 
complex  problems  of  democracy ;  but  those  are  insignifi- 
cant in  comparison  with  the  inefficiencies  and  losses 
due  solely  to  corruption,  perjury  and  theft.  Do  we  of 
moderate  means  suffer  from  unjust  taxes  ?  It  is  partly, 
of  course,  because  of  the  difficulty  of  establishing  any 
equitable  system  of  taxation;  but  it  is  mainly  because  a 
considerable  share  of  the  tax-levy  is  either  squandered 


$6  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

or  stolen,  and  because,  by  perjury,  many  millionaires  — 
individual  or  corporate  —  escape  contributing  their  just 
portion  of  the  public  revenues.  Do  we  see  great  na- 
tional and  state  improvements  halting  in  the  legislative 
chambers  ?  It  is  most  often  because  they  are  being  har- 
nessed to  or  are  standing  aside  for  outrageous  "  jobs." 
Do  we  see  our  city  halls  filled  with  men  whom  we  blush 
to  call  our  representatives  ?  It  is  because  the  "  ma- 
chine "  has  stolen  the  political  machinery  in  order  that  it 
may  misapply  the  public  funds.  Do  we  see  our  public 
schools  inadequate  to  the  task  they  have  to  do  ?  It  is  be- 
cause, in  many  cases,  the  education,  the  health,  the  very 
lives  of  our  boys  and  girls  are  a  prey  to  officialdom  that 
seeks  only  its  own  selfish  ends. 

And  shall  the  millions  of  American  voters  who  are 
decent,  intelligent  and  really  patriotic  announce  them- 
selves helpless  to  stop  these  thefts,  perjuries  and  mal- 
feasances in  office?  As  well  might  Gulliver  have  de- 
clared himself  conquered  by  the  pack-thread  fetters  of 
the  Lilliputians.  The  vast  majority  of  Americans  are 
honest;  shall  they  sit  supine  while  a  handful  of  rascals 
plunder  the  public  treasury  ?  The  great  run  of  men  are 
efficient  in  their  own  business ;  shall  they  tolerate  a  less 
efficiency  in  governmental  affairs?  The  immense  ma- 
jority are  patriotic  with  that  true  patriotism  which  wants 
the  government  really  to  be  the  protector  of  the  humble, 
the  ally  of  the  morally  strong,  the  teacher  of  a  higher 
civilization ;  shall  they  then  countenance  an  exploitation 
of  the  weak  and  a  triumph  of  the  dishonest  which,  if 
unchecked,  will  make  our  nation  a  by-word  for  ineffi- 


THE   "POLITICAL  ANIMAL"  57 

ciency.  The  evil  forces  in  politics  have  the  advantage 
of  organization,  of  self-interest,  of  that  hanging-to- 
gether which  is  the  stern  alternative  to  hanging  sep- 
arately ;  but  the  good  forces  have  on  their  side  not  only 
overwhelming  numbers,  but  also  the  eternal  fact  that,  as 
Wendell  Phillips  said,  "  One  on  God's  side  is  a  majority." 

There  is  no  Goliath  of  political  greed  so  huge  that  the 
little  stone  of  truth  hurled  by  the  sling  of  moral  courage 
will  not  lay  it  low.  There  is  no  Jericho  of  machine  poli- 
tics so  well  entrenched  that  the  blast  of  brave  revolt 
will  not  level  its  humbug  walls.  There  is  no  evil  monop- 
oly so  fabulously  rich  that  a  lighted  match  of  naked  fact 
thrown  by  a  resolute  hand  will  not  send  it  flaming  to 
its  own  destruction.  The  pulpits  themselves,  armed 
with  scriptural  texts,  upheld  slavery;  but  a  handful  of 
men  with  courage  —  Brown,  Garrison,  Lovejoy,  Parker 
—  raised  a  whirlwind  that  swept  it  to  destruction.  The 
city  of  New  York  trembled  before  Boss  Tweed  and  even 
the  "  best  citizens  "  declared  that  no  power  could  over- 
throw him ;  but  a  few  men  like  Nast  and  Jennings,  with 
no  weapons  but  pen  and  pencil,  pulled  him  to  pieces  like 
a  thing  of  straw. 

Again  and  again  has  history  shown  that  when  a 
growing  political  evil  reaches  a  certain  point  it  becomes 
a  moral  evil,  and  that  then  some  leader  arises  to  cham- 
pion the  right.  Over  and  over  again  it  has  been  proved 
that  when  such  leadership  appears  the  people  are  certain 
and  are  glad  to  follow.  So  long  as  there  are  moral 
leaders,  then,  we  need  have  no  fear  for  the  ultimate 
safety  of  the  republic.  Only  the  nation  which  can  no 


58  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

longer  breed  such  captains  is  on  the  road  to  decay.  But 
must  we  always  wait  for  political  wrongs  to  swell  into 
moral  evils  before  we  are  to  begin  their  destruction? 
What  a  wasteful  process !  What  a  cumbersome  method 
of  reform!  What  millions  of  money  and  thousands  of 
lives  may  be  sacrificed  during  the  slow  years  while  wick- 
edness is  developing  to  its  own  destruction !  And  mean- 
while what  confusion  and  error  are  being  instilled  into 
the  minds  of  men,  and  especially  into  those  of  boys  and 
girls,  who  see  the  wicked  flourishing  while  the  good  suf- 
fer, and  who  have  neither  experience  nor  imagination  to 
foresee  the  ultimate  triumph  of  the  moral  law ! 

To  save  this  waste,  to  dispel  this  moral  confusion  and 
doubt,  to  recognize  political  evils  while  they  are  young 
and  to  strangle  them  while  they  are  still  feeble,  to  make 
politics  clean  and  businesslike,  is  the  self-appointed  and 
appalling  task  of  the  political  reformer.  What  wonder 
that  he  sometimes  becomes  disheartened  and  half  be- 
lieves the  jibes  of  the  spoilsmen  who  picture  him  as  a 
mixture  of  Don  Quixote  tilting  at  windmills  and  of  Mrs. 
Partington  with  her  protesting  mop !  The  final  question 
with  him,  however,  as  with  every  other  man  who  fights 
the  devil,  is  not :  Is  the  work  worth  doing?  but  How  can 
it  be  most  effectually  done? 

Obviously  it  is  a  waste  of  time  to  exhort  the  practical 
politicians  to  mend  their  ways.  It  is  almost  equally  a 
waste  of  time  to  work  with  men  of  middle  life;  for  either 
they  have  convictions  which  have  become  as  a  species 
of  religion,  or  else,  having  gone  so  many  years  without 
personal  convictions,  they  are  as  putty  in  the  hands  of 


THE   "POLITICAL  ANIMAL"  59 

party  managers.  But  young  men,  even  in  these  days  of 
youthful  sophistication,  still  have  enthusiasm,  still  cher- 
ish moral  ambitions,  still  believe  in  Utopia;  and  partici- 
pation in  politics,  as  the  outward  sign  of  the  inward 
grace  of  new  manhood,  is  to  them  a  welcome  and  ab- 
sorbing avocation.  Find  some  way  of  bringing  young 
men  to  the  ballot-box  with  higher  standards  of  morality, 
and  of  making  them  see  that  political  morality  pays,  and 
the  battle  for  political  reform  is  won.  Who  is  to  do 
this  and  how  is  it  to  be  done? 

It  is  a  commonplace  that  political  morality  depends, 
not  on  the  politicians,  not  on  the  form  of  government, 
but  on  a  high  general  standard  of  virtue  and  its  applica- 
tion in  political  affairs.  For  that  standard  we  must 
look  of  course  to  the  home,  the  church,  the  school  and 
such  voluntary  organizations  as  boys'  clubs,  settlement 
houses  and  Christian  associations.  They  are  the  only 
uplifting  forces  with  which  youth  comes  in  contact, 
since  the  tendency  of  all  other  factors  in  his  education 
(such  as  the  streets,  his  boy  companions,  the  newspapers, 
the  sights  and  sounds  of  daily  life)  are  either  neutral  or 
distinctly  bad.  Beyond  their  general  tendency  towards 
good,  what  can  these  several  educational  forces  accom- 
plish specifically  in  the  direction  of  a  higher  political 
morality  ? 

So  far  as  concerns  politics,  the  usual  home  influence 
makes  mainly  for  partisanship  by  transmitting  to  the 
son,  without  reasoning  or  even  argument,  the  political 
faith  of  the  father.  In  so  far,  however,  as  his  home  has 
taught  the  boy  physical  and  moral  cleanliness,  obedience, 


60  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

reverence,  kindness,  thrift  and  the  other  home  virtues  — 
which,  unhappily,  so  many  homes  fail  to  instill  —  it  has 
elevated  his  moral  plane  and  so  has  helped  him  to  under- 
stand the  immorality  and  unthrift  of  many  things  in  our 
political  life.  The  schools,  to  a  degree,  teach  political 
procedure;  but,  as  a  rule,  they  can  do  little  towards  in- 
stilling political  ethics:  first,  because  they  are  so  com- 
pletely in  the  hands  of  women  whose  influence  along 
political  lines  must  necessarily  be  small;  and,  secondly, 
because  political  morality  presupposes  independence  of 
thought;  and  our  schools,  unfortunately,  tend  strongly 
to  emphasize  that  surrendering  of  the  judgment,  that 
herding  of  minds  as  well  as  of  bodies  which  is  the  work- 
ing-capital of  the  machine  politician.  The  majority 
of  formal  churches,  unless  they  show  more  independence 
of  their  rich  and  influential  parishioners  than  has  been 
their  wont,  are  not  likely  to  point  out  many  political  sins 
excepting  such  as  are  a  long  distance  from  their  own  con- 
gregations ;  and  to  make  politics  vital,  the  subject  must  be 
brought  close  to  the  daily  lives  and  interests  of  the  young 
voters.  There  remain,  then,  the  voluntary  organiza- 
tions ;  and  upon  such  bodies  —  already  existing  or  to  be 
created  — .the  political  reformer  must  eventually  depend 
for  that  special  training  in  political  honor,  decency  and 
independence  of  thought  which,  for  the  sake  of  himself 
and  of  his  country,  every  youth  should  have. 

There  is  a  great  and  growing  body  of  young  men, 
between  eighteen  and  thirty  years  of  age,  who  are  in- 
tensely and  unselfishly  interested  in  politics,  who  would 
be  glad  to  understand  it  rightly,  to  take  part  in  its  battles, 


THE   "POLITICAL  ANIMAL"  61 

to  rally  round  the  champions  of  decency,  order,  economy 
and  efficiency.  The  machine  politicians  recognize  this 
keen  interest  of  early  manhood  and  are  prompt  to  enlist 
these  young  men.  From  them  they  recruit  their  battal- 
ions of  ward-workers  to  keep  in  political  subservience 
the  hordes  of  the  unthinking.  But  many  of  these  young 
fellows  who,  finding  no  other  opening,  take  service  under 
the  "  machine,"  have  no  real  allegiance  to  it  and  would 
gladly  enlist  themselves,  were  there  easy  opportunity, 
under  the  banner  of  reform.  And  there  are  still  more 
who,  perceiving  no  chance  for  political  work  except  with 
the  "  machine,"  and  discovering  in  those  selfish  organi- 
zations everything  revolting  to  their  young  ideals  and 
fresh  enthusiasms,  turn  away  entirely  from  politics, 
disgusted  with  it  and  determined  to  take  no  share  in 
what,  so  far  as  they  can  see,  is  but  a  matter  of  sordid 
barter  and  unfair  sale.  Devise  some  rational,  business- 
like, really  democratic  method  of  enlisting  these  eager 
young  fellows  in  the  cause  of  clean  politics,  and  of  so 
protecting  the  organization  thus  formed  that  it  cannot 
be  stolen  by  any  of  the  "  machines,"  and  the  political 
power  of  the  city  and  of  the  state  will  in  the  end  be  theirs. 
Such  organizations,  however,  cannot  hold  together 
upon  the  unsteady  foundations  of  widely  separated  elec- 
tions. Neither  can  they  succeed  upon  the  general  and 
rather  vague  platform  of  "  purifying  "  politics.  Young 
men,  unless  disillusioned,  have  large  ideals  and  demand 
a  comprehensive  battle-cry.  Such  an  effective  rally- 
ing-cry,  it  seems  to  me,  is  found  in  the  phrase  Obedience 
to  law.  Be  the  law  God-made  or  man-made,  every  polit- 


62  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

ical  evil  is  the  direct  result  of  breaking  the  law;  and 
such  organizations  as  have  been  suggested  can  be  and 
ought  to  be  firmly  cemented  upon  the  single  demand  that 
every  voter,  every  office-holder,  every  political  organiza- 
tion, every  city,  every  state,  and  every  nation  shall  obey 
the  laws  of  God  and  man. 

The  laws  of  God,  sooner  or  later,  enforce  themselves ; 
but  the  laws  of  man  must  be  enforced  by  men.  A 
genuine  enforcement  implies,  of  course,  that  many  laws 
now  upon  the  statute-books  should  be  repealed  as  obso- 
lete, meddlesome,  foolish  or  placed  there  for  ulterior,  hyp- 
ocritical or  other  ignoble  ends.  Were  half  the  statutes 
swept  away  and  the  remaining  ones  really  put  in  force, 
not  only  would  we  be  better  governed,  but  we  would  rid 
ourselves  of  that  widespread  disrespect  for  all  law  which 
comes  from  witnessing  the  non-enforcement  of  so  many 
existing,  but  impracticable  statutes.  Teach  young  men 
to  discriminate  among  laws  and  you  are  teaching  them 
both  to  understand  and  to  respect  all  law.  Base  all  your 
political  arguments,  found  all  your  political  indictments 
upon  this  single  question  of  obedience  to  law,  and  no 
sophistry,  no  casuistry,  no  striking  example  of  the  suc- 
cessful rogue  can  beat  down  your  contentions  or  con- 
found your  facts.  By  an  appeal  to  fundamental  moral- 
ity, every  political  problem  is  reduced  to  its  lowest  terms, 
and  its  fallacies  or  its  solution  are  made  as  clear  as  the 
rule  of  three. 


THE   WORKADAY   WORLD 

IN  one  of  those  mislaid  books  which  is  probably  on 
the  shelves  of  a  borrowing  friend,  I  remember  reading 
a  clever  essay  on  the  "  bothers  of  life,"  wherein  the 
writer  depicts  most  graphically  the  grinding  nuisance 
involved  in  getting  up,  dressing,  eating  breakfast,  an- 
swering letters,  etc.,  etc.,  day  after  day,  perhaps  —  hor- 
rible thought  —  twenty-eight  or  thirty  thousand  times. 
Merely  to  read  about  these  "  bothers  "  so  tires  one  that 
it  seems  impossible  ever  to  go  through  the  monotonous 
routine  again. 

Most  depressing  is  the  writer's  insistence  that  none 
can  escape  this  endless  repetition,  his  emphasis,  though 
he  does  not  employ  it,  upon  the  vulgar  aphorism  that 
"  Life  is  simply  one  —  thing  after  another  "  for  every 
one  of  us.  Our  feelings  harrowed  by  reading  of  the 
abused  workers  in  mills  or  mines  doing  the  same  monot- 
onous thing  over  and  over,  year  in  and  year  out,  we  com- 
miserate them  all  the  more  because  we  contrast  their 
toilsome  lives  with  the  supposed  ease  of  the  multi-million- 
aire, or  with  even  our  own  more  modest  comforts.  But 
a  recent,  penetrating  book  called  "  The  Goldfish  "  dem- 
onstrates that  the  existence  of  those  multi-millionaires 
is,  in  most  cases,  quite  as  slavish  as  that  of  the  dinner- 
pail  worker.  The  miserable  male  goldfish  swimming 
around  in  the  limelight  focused  upon  his  social  bowl, 

63 


64  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

had  labored  early  and  late  for  thirty  years  to  accumulate  a 
fortune,  only  to  be  condemned  never  again  to  take  his  ease. 
On  the  contrary,  at  the  end  of  a  hard  day's  work,  he 
finds  himself  thrust  into  evening  clothes  by  a  censorious 
valet,  in  order  to  eat  somewhere  a  heavy  dinner  in  still 
heavier  company,  or  to  receive  these  leaden  people  at 
his  own  overloaded  table.  Even  the  main  object  of  his 
strenuous  labors,  that  of  giving  his  daughters  social 
prestige,  had  deprived  those  unfortunate  girls,  owing 
to  the  exigencies  of  Society  with  a  large  "  S,"  from  meet- 
ing any  men  except  other  male  goldfish  possessing  more 
of  money  and  leisure  than  of  brains.  Thus  far,  this  poor 
father-goldfish  had  seen  not  one  of  these  chaps  whom 
he  would  permit  a  daughter  of  his  to  marry;  yet  by  his 
very,  so-called,  social  success,  he  had  deprived  his  off- 
spring of  practically  every  opportunity  for  knowing  de- 
cent, red-blooded,  hard-working  youth. 

To  the  treadmill,  then, —  whether  iron  or  golden  — 
are  condemned  both  the  lowest  and  the  highest  strata 
of  society.  And  the  great  middle-class  is  in  no  better 
case.  Every  one  of  us  is  confined  in  some  species  of 
bowl  or  squirrel-cage  or  pint-pot  in  which  he  must  per- 
force pursue  the  same  routine,  year  in  and  year  out,  with 
only  an  occasional  marriage,  fire  or  scandal  to  vary  the 
monotony,  and  with  death  as  the  unescapable  goal. 

"  Tomorrow  and  tomorrow  and  tomorrow, 
Creeps  in  this  petty  pace  from  day  to  day, 
To  the  last  syllable  of  recorded  time ; 
And  all  our  yesterdays  have  lighted  fools 
The  way  to  dusty  death." 


THE  WORKADAY  WORLD  65 

All  this  seems  horrible;  yet,  fortunately  for  our  peace 
of  mind,  we  early  learn  that  the  dull  monotony  of  work  is 
infinitely  to  be  preferred  to  the  deathly  tedium  of  idle- 
ness; and  sooner  or  later,  moreover,  we  realize  that  the 
earning  of  one's  bread  in  the  sweat  of  his  brow,  far  from 
being  the  primal  curse,  is  the  fundamental  blessing,  the 
greatest  of  the  many  vouchsafed  a  carping  world  by  an 
understanding  Providence.  Furthermore,  Darwinian 
ascent  has  lifted  us  at  least  so  far  above  the  veritable 
goldfish  and  squirrel  that  we  need  accept  only  a  certain 
proportion  of  bowl  and  cage  existence,  a  large  share  of 
time  and  opportunity  being  ours  to  spend  as  we  may 
choose.  Although  most  of  us  are  scandalously  ineffi- 
cient officers  in  command  of  very  rickety  troops,  each  of 
us  is,  nevertheless,  for  a  part  of  every  day  at  least, 
"  Captain  of  his  Soul." 

Starting,  then,  with  the  unalterable  premise  that  prob- 
ably ninety-nine  per  cent  of  us  must  work  for  practically 
the  whole  of  our  lives,  and  that  substantially  all  of  us  must 
undergo  a  daily  routine  which,  if  we  brooded  over  it, 
would  drive  us  mad,  how  are  we  to  escape  ?  Only  by 
establishing,  each  for  himself,  a  philosophy  of  life  and  a 
manner  of  living  that  will  do  at  least  two  things:  give 
him  what  President  Eliot  has  so  aptly  called  "  joy  in 
work,"  and  fit  him  to  get  the  most  out  of  those  precious 
free  hours  during  which  he  is  permitted  to  escape  from 
his  bowl  or  whirligig,  or  to  stretch  his  mental  and  spirit- 
ual muscles  after  the  dismal  treadmill  of  his  workaday 
task.  If  one  is  to  find  joy  in  work,  he  must  know  how  to 
labor  intelligently  and  with  some  understanding  of  what 


66  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

he  is  working  for;  if  he  is  to  find  happiness  in  leisure, 
he  must  be  furnished  with  as  many  as  possible  of  those 
things  which  make  for  real,  lasting  mental  and  moral 
satisfaction.  A  sound  philosophy  of  life  demands,  then, 
that  one  be  trained  not  only  for  efficient  work,  but  also 
for  efficient  living;  and  that  he  be  provisioned,  moreover, 
for  the  nutritious  and  ample  feeding  of  his  hours  of 
leisure.  Sometimes,  having  only  the  gentleman-scholar 
in  mind,  we  stuff  the  boy's  knapsack  with  such  rich  food 
of  culture  that  he  becomes  mentally  dyspeptic  and  unfit 
for  work.  Sometimes,  having  only  the  worker  in  mind, 
we  leave  his  knapsack  so  empty  that  he  spiritually 
starves.  Seldom  indeed  do  we  succeed  in  balancing  our 
educational  diet  with  such  nicety  that  the  youth  finds 
both  work-time  and  play-time  equally  stimulating  phases 
of  the  inexhaustible  joy  of  just  being  alive.  There  are 
in  the  world  thousands  of  the  tribe  of  Mrs.  Gummidge  to 
one  of  the  joyous  company  of  Pollyanna. 

Two  things  have  had  a  far  greater  psychological  effect 
upon  the  Anglo-Saxon,  and  consequently  upon  the 
American,  attitude  towards  work  than  most  of  us  ap- 
preciate. The  first  is  the  Puritan  faith  which,  in  its 
emphasis  upon  the  curse  of  Adam  and  Eve,  has  degraded 
labor  into  a  ceaseless  punishment.  The  second  is  the 
English  social  system  which  for  centuries  has  magnified, 
as  the  main  distinction  of  the  gentleman,  the  fact  that  he 
does  not  and  must  not  work  for  his  living.  It  is  signifi- 
cant that  in  Harvard  University  the  grade  of  "  C  "  is 
known  as  the  "  gentleman's  mark." 

The  effect  of  these  two  fundamentally  wrong  atti- 


THE  WORKADAY  WORLD  67 

tudes  towards  life  has  been  to  overcrowd  the  learned  pro- 
fessions and  the  clean-collar  occupations,  to  turn  the 
emphasis,  in  education,  upon  cultural,  rather  than  upon 
practical  knowledge,  and  thus  to  blind  men  to  the  fact 
that  there  is  a  true  science  and  art  and  dignity  in  every 
industry  and  every  trade.  Work  being  regarded  as  a 
curse,  labor  with  the  hands  being  looked  upon  as  socially 
degrading,  and  the  Anglo-Saxon  inclining  to  exalt  the 
rule  of  thumb  above  the  rule  of  science,  it  is  only  within 
the  existing  generation  that  the  multifarious  processes 
by  which  practically  every  one  of  us  must  earn  his  living 
have  been  subjected  to  any  formal,  scientific  study. 
Having,  thus  late  in  the  day,  realized  the  necessity  for 
such  a  study,  we  are  rushing  with  the  usual  American 
impetuosity  to  an  opposite  extreme,  and  are  casting 
overboard  almost  everything  except  what,  with  cheerful 
vagueness,  we  call  technical  or  industrial  or  vocational 
education. 

Less  than  twenty  years  ago,  vocational  education  was 
such  an  unaccustomed  phrase  that  it  was  difficult  to  dis- 
entangle, in  the  mind  of  the  ordinary  citizen,  the  word 
"  vocation  "  from  the  word  "  vacation."  Now,  however, 
vocational  education  and  industrial  efficiency  are  the  two 
wheel  horses  that  draw  most  of  the  argumentative  load 
at  practically  every  meeting,  be  it  that  of  a  women's  club 
discussing  aesthetic  dressing,  or  that  of  a  chamber  of 
commerce  debating  preparedness.  Every  educational 
crime  on  the  calendar  is  being  committed  by  knaves  or 
ignoramuses,  in  the  name  of  vocational  training,  and 
every  vagary  in  business  or  philanthropy  masquerades 
as  a  sine  qua  non  in  the  blind  worship  of  efficiency. 


68  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

Having  been  a  backer  of  both  these  steeds  for  at  least 
twenty-five  years,  I  have  the  greater  right  to  emphasize 
their  inadequacy  to  meet  anything  more  than  a  fraction 
of  the  needs  of  the  individual  or  of  society.  The  fixing 
of  public  attention  upon  efficiency  and  upon  vocational 
training  was  necessary,  has  done  a  vast  amount  of  good, 
and  will  show  still  greater  results.  But  in  concentrating 
our  activities  upon  these  two  subsidiary  things,  we  are 
tending  towards  making  the  mistake  of  neglecting  mat- 
ters infinitely  more  essential  to  human  welfare,  happi- 
ness and  real  effectiveness.  In  limiting  education  to  an 
instrument  for  training  youth  to  earn  a  good  living  in 
ways  that  square  with  natural  aptitudes,  we  are  forget- 
ting that,  while  the  ability  to  work  with  intelligence  and 
purpose  tremendously  increases  not  only  the  productive 
power,  but  also  what  one  may  call  the  productive  pleas- 
ure, of  the  human  worker,  much  more  than  this  is  needed 
to  give  that  "joy  in  work"  which  is  so  essential  an 
element  both  from  the  productive  and  from  the  human 
standpoint,  (joy  in  work  cannot  come  from  mere  techni- 
cal efficiency;  it  can  result  only  from  that  self-knowl- 
edge, that  breadth  of  view,  that  sanity  of  outlook,  that 
understanding  of  the  true  relations  among  things  and 
between  men  and  things,  which  ought  to  be  the  ultimate 
outcome  of  what  we  vaguely,  and  too  often  sneeringly, 
call  education  for  culturey 

To  yoke  culture  and  cotton  spinning  seems  rather  ab- 
surd; yet  it  is  a  fact  that  the  main  problem,  not  only  in 
cotton  spinning,  but  in  all  production  and  distribution 
of  goods,  is  not  how  to  make  handier  workmen,  more 


THE  WORKADAY  WORLD  69 

skilled  mechanics,  more  highly  trained  technicians,  more 
hustling  salesmen,  —  it  is  how  to  develop  broader,  saner 
and  more  forward-looking  men  and  women,  how  to 
widen  the  interests,  awaken  the  minds  and  stimulate 
the  characters  of  sentient  beings  with  immortal  souls.  It 
is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that^vjiat  a  workmen  thinks 
and  feels  and  aspires  to  outside  his  work  hours  has  far 
more  influence  upon  his  actual  efficiency^  to  say  nothing 
of  his  personal  happiness,  than  anything  which  may  or 
can  be  done  to  give  him  technical  skill  within  those  work- 
ing hours  or  in  preparation  for  thenL;  In  most  occupa- 
tions there  is  a  definite  limit  of  actual  dexterity,  a  limit 
that  is  often  very  soon  reached.  But  the  value  of  the 
worker  has  no  such  limitation,  provided  he  be  so  trained 
on  what,  for  want  of  a  better  term,  we  call  the  cultural 
side,  as  to  give  him  breadth,  understanding  and  a  sense 
of  the  relation  between  what  he  does  and  what  the  world 
is  doing;  provided  he  be  so  educated  as  to  develop,  in 
other  words,  his  faculties  of  inventiveness,  emulation, 
loyalty  and  imagination.  The  ratio  between  the  worker 
who  is  simply  a  cog  in  the  machine,  and  the  worker  who 
has  outlook  and  vision,  is  as  between  one  and  ten  thou- 
sand. The  need  of  American  industry  to-day  is  not  pri- 
marily for  workmen  more  highly  skilled  with  their 
hands ;  it  is  for  workmen  who  are  aware  that  they  pos- 
sess, and  who  are  able  to  utilize,  their  minds  and  souls. 
This  being  the  case,  it  follows  that  while  education 
should  diligently  proceed  to  repair  its  shameful  neglect 
of  sound  technical  training,  while  it  should  take  every 
means  possible  to  widen  the  vocational  knowledge  and 


yo  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

the  vocational  opportunity  of  every  boy  and  girl,  it  should 
at  the  same  time  put  greater  emphasis  than  ever  upon 
those  things  in  education  which  make  for  clear  thinking, 
for  insight,  for  knowledge  of  the  world,  for  idealism, 
upon  those  things,  in  short,  which  make  for  genuine 
culture. 

All  this  is  very  easy  to  say ;  and  culture,  like  "  Kul- 
tur,"  may  be  made  to  cover  a  multitude  of  both  educa- 
tional and  social  sins.  Consequently,  it  is  idle  for  any- 
one to  advocate  education  for  breadth,  for  culture,  for 
vision,  unless  he  has  some  notion  of  what  he  means  by 
these  abstract  terms. 

He  cannot  do  this  unless  he  first  lays  down  some  gen- 
eral philosophy  of  life,  unless  he  establishes,  as  the  en- 
gineer would  say,  a  permanent  base  for  all  subsequent 
reasoning.  To  my  mind  there  is  no  shadow  of  ques- 
tion that  the  cornerstone  of  that  philosophical  founda- 
tion must  be  faith, —  not  creed  or  dogma  or  blind  wor- 
ship ;  but  an  unshakeable  conviction  that  somewhere  and 
somehow  there  is  a  creative  Power  with  a  purpose  too 
high  and  with  ways  too  profound  for  our  understanding, 
but  a  Power  that  is  using  us  as  instruments  to  an  end, 
an  end  in  the  compassing  of  which  every  one  of  us  can 
have, —  and  indeed,  must  have  —  a  less  or  greater  share. 

Now  this  Power :  call  it  God,  or  the  Infinite,  or  Nature 
with  a  large  "  N,"  or  what  you  please,  has  put  every  nor- 
mal human  being  under  an  obligation,  or  has  given  him 
an  opportunity  (it  makes  no  difference  which  way  it  is 
expressed)  by  surrounding  him  with  a  civilization  (im- 
perfect though  it  be)  and  with  a  tamed  nature  (albeit 


THE  WORKADAY  WORLD  71* 

still  pretty  wild)  representing  the  accumulated  result 
of  unnumbered  centuries  of  human  work  and  achieve- 
ment. Every  individual  born  into  the  world,  then,  pro- 
vided he  is  not  a  hopeless  idiot,  arrives  here  with  a  large 
patrimony  won  by  inconceivable  struggle  and  capable  of 
almost  endless  increase.  The  very  slightest  acquaint- 
ance with  history  cannot  fail  to  show  that  the  men  and 
women,  with  conspicuous  exceptions  beyond  our  finite 
understanding,  who  do  most  towards  increasing  this  ac- 
cumulated store  of  civilization,  get  most  in  the  shape, 
either  of  the  material  rewards  of  wealth  or  of  the  multi- 
farious immaterial  rewards  of  current  or  future  fame; 
that  the  great  rank  and  file  of  us  who  try  to  do  our  share 
get  at  least  moderate  comfort,  neighborly  regard  and  an 
easy  conscience ;  and  that  the  drones,  wasters  and  "slack- 
ers" (again  with  notable  exceptions  beyond  our  ex- 
plaining) are  sooner  or  later  punished,  in  one  way  or 
another,  for  their  disobedience  to  the  established  order 
of  the  world.  Just  as  in  the  old  days  the  debtor  was  sold 
into  slavery  until  the  debt  should  be  paid,  so,  in  our 
earthly  scheme,  the  only  way  to  reach  economic,  intel- 
lectual and  moral  freedom  seems  to  be  through  discharg- 
ing in  one  way  or  another,  one's  initial  debt  to  civiliza- 
tion. And  that  debt  is  in  direct  proportion,  of  course, 
to  the  original  "faculty"  (to  use  an  almost  outworn 
term)  with  which  one  is  born,  and  to  the  environment, 
fortunate  or  unfortunate,  in  which  one  is  brought  up. 

Granting  then,  as  it  seems  one  is  obliged  to  do,  that 
this  debt  to  civilization  exists  and  that  satisfaction 
in  living  can  come  only  through  at  least  an  attempt  to 


72  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

pay  it,  how  is  it  to  be  wiped  out  ?  Obviously  it  cannot  be 
paid  to  that  Unseen  which  is  the  cornerstone  of  faith; 
obviously,  too,  it  cannot  be  discharged  directly  by  work- 
ing for  that  vague  thing  called  civilization.  It  must 
be  paid  in  tangible  ways  to  beings  of  flesh  and  blood. 
Those  beings  are  myself,  my  family  —  which,  under 
Nature's  scheme  of  dual  sex,  is  the  fulfillment  of  myself, 
—  and  my  neighbors  who,  in  widening  circles  of  rela- 
tives, fellow-townsmen,  countrymen  and  the  world,  con- 
stitute that  social  medium  which  is  as  necessary  to  my 
existence  as  is  the  air  to  the  bird  and  the  water  to  the  fish. 

My  debt  to  civilization  is  to  be  paid,  then,  in  three 
ways:  by  developing  to  a  high  point,  physically,  men- 
tally and  spiritually,  myself;  by  making  my  creative 
power  effective  through  marrying  wisely  and  rearing  my 
children  conscientiously ;  and  by  performing  at  least  my 
fair  share  of  those  various  community  functions  with- 
out which  all  that  civilization  has  thus  far  gained  would 
vanish.  Consequently,  the  chief  ends  of  human  edu- 
cation should  be  the  care  and  training  of  the  body,  the 
strengthening  of  the  mind,  will  and  conscience,  adequate 
preparation  for  parenthood  and  homemaking,  the  arous- 
ing of  civic  spirit,  and,  as  we  saw  in  the  first  place,  the 
strengthening  of  faith. 

This  —  the  only  adequate  —  view  greatly  widens,  of 
course,  the  meaning  of  vocational  training,  vastly  ex- 
tends the  field  of  true  efficiency.  Vocational  education 
that  stops  at  the  idea  of  earning  one's  living  is  a  poor 
and  sordid  thing;  efficiency  that  thinks  only  of  material 
achievement  is  a  ridiculously  mean  measure  of  mankind. 


THE  WORKADAY  WORLD  73 

Just  to  earn  a  living,  no  matter  how  many  thousands  of 
dollars  it  may  be  measured  in,  just  to  be  an  efficient 
maker  or  distributor  of  commodities,  is  to  degrade  one's 
self  to  the  level  of  an  ingenious  machine.  A  man  who 
does  only  this  sells  his  soul  to  the  devil  of  materialism, 
works  without  finding  any  joy  in  living,  and  earns  the 
possibility  of  leisure  only  to  find  his  leisure  a  vain  and 
empty  thing. 

Whatever  his  particular  job  or  profession,  the  true 
vocation  of  every  man  is  to  be  not  merely  an  efficient 
worker,  but  also  a  wide-awake  citizen,  an  intelligent  and 
conscientious  homemaker,  a  trustworthy  custodian  of 
his  own  and  his  children's  bodies,  a  competent  captain 
of  his  own  and  his  children's  souls.  His  efficiency  is 
measured,  not  by  the  money  that  he  accumulates,  but 
by  the  contribution  that  he  makes  to  the  world  of  his  own 
time,  through  his  citizenship,  and  to  the  world  of  the 
future,  through  the  character  of  the  children  whom  he 
rears. 

Physical  education,  moral  education,  will  training, 
education  for  homemaking,  preparation  for  active  and 
intelligent  citizenship  and  education  in  the  use  of  one's 
leisure  hours,  as  well  as  preparation  for  earning  one's 
living,  are  all  implicit  and  should,  therefore,  be  all  in- 
cluded in  the  term:  vocational  education;  and  the  less 
chance  that  the  boy  and  girl  have  to  get  this  comprehen- 
sive training  at  home,  the  more  must  the  community,  for 
its  own  protection  and  well-being,  provide. 

At  present  the  chief  common  agency  for  doing  this 
is  the  public  school ;  and  great  is  the  turmoil,  within  and 


74  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

without  the  schools,  over  both  what  they  ought  to  and 
what  they  can  teach. 

As  to  the  "  ought,"  they,  or  the  home,  or  some  other 
agency,  or  all  of  them  together,  should  unquestionably 
find  some  way  of  dealing  with  boys  and  girls  so  that  a 
very  much  greater  proportion  of  them  than  now  enter 
manhood  and  womanhood  writh  strong  bodies,  self-reli- 
ant wills  and  active  consciences.  They  should  enter 
maturity,  moreover,  not  only  with  ambition,  but  also  with 
some  sort  of  preparation  for  earning  a  fair  living,  mak- 
ing a  good  home,  taking  an  effective  part  in  public  affairs, 
and  spending  their  leisure  in  something  more  worth 
while  than  frequenting  street-corners  and  barrooms, 
moving-picture  shows  or  even  so-called  fashionable 
functions. 

As  to  the  "can"  it  is  simply  a  question  of  all  pull- 
ing together  to  make  the  work  of  the  schools,  the  church, 
and  the  community  in  general  really  supplement  that  of 
the  home  in  every  one  of  these  essential  ways.  If  the 
citizens  would  provide  the  money,  if  parents  would  un- 
derstandingly  back  up  the  teachers,  if  the  other  social 
forces  would  actually  cooperate  all  along  the  line,  and 
if  all  of  us  would  get  it  firmly  fixed  in  our  heads  that  the 
preparation  of  youth  for  parenthood,  for  citizenship, 
for  productive  efficiency  and  for  effective,  virile  living, 
is  a  real  and  serious  business,  is,  indeed,  the  most  impor- 
tant business  in  the  world  and  one  in  which  every  single 
one  of  us,  including  the  child  himself,  is  an  active  and 
responsible  partner, —  then  the  schools  could  give  an 
education  that  is  an  education,  then  the  money  spent  on 


THE  WORKADAY  WORLD  75 

them  would  yield  not  only  visible,  but  really  fabulous,  re- 
turns. As  it  is,  too  many  schools  are  like  the  famous 
characterization  of  a  university :  "  a  place  that  must  be 
full  of  learning,  since  the  freshmen  bring  so  much  wis- 
dom in  and  the  seniors  take  so  little  away." 

We  and  our  children,  however,  are  in  the  United  States 
of  to-day,  not  in  Utopia :  and  what  can  we  do  with  con- 
ditions as  they  exist?  These  things  we  can  do,  these 
things  we  absolutely  must,  at  least,  begin  to  do,  if  we  are 
to  make  our  democracy  and  our  country  what  it  has 
every  possibility  of  becoming.  We  ought  to  bring  educa- 
tion to  bear  on  children  from  the  time  they  are  conceived 
to  at  least  their  eighteenth  year :  first,  by  so  educating  the 
father-and-mother-to-be  that  they  will  know  how  prop- 
erly to  feed  and  train  their  young ;  secondly,  by  taking  the 
child  at  kindergarten  (or,  as  we  must  now  say,  Montes- 
sori)  age  into  a  school  which  will  be  far  more  concerned 
about  ministering  to  his  bodily  needs,  his  play  instincts, 
his  imagination,  his  will,  his  individuality,  his  social  un- 
derstanding, than  about  cramming  his  mind  with  predi- 
gested  and  more  or  less  unimportant  facts ;  thirdly,  by  so 
cleaning  up  our  neighborhoods,  our  towns  and  our  cities, 
that  they  shall  be  fit  places,  physically  and  morally,  for 
boys  and  girls  to  be  brought  up  in ;  and  fourthly,  by  so 
stimulating  the  churches  that  they  will  actually  infuse, 
as  only  they  have  the  right  to  do  and,  so  to  speak,  the 
machinery  for  doing,  their  people,  and  especially  their 
young  people,  with  that  glowing  faith  which  is  absolutely 
fundamental  to  any  sound  philosophy  of  living. 

The  edict  of  Herod  was  mild  as  compared  with  our 


76  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

modern,  needless  slaughter  of  the  innocents;  the  bloody 
fields  of  Europe  show  far  fewer  dead  than  peace  kills, 
every  year,  as  the  result  of  a  preventable  ignorance; 
what  society  suffers,  each  day,  because  of  the  untrained 
minds,  the  weak  wills,  the  undeveloped  consciences  and 
the  blunted  social  instincts  of  its  constituent  members,  is 
at  once  the  cause  and  the  measure  of  human  suffering 
and  sin.  To  prevent  all  this, —  not  to  perpetuate  cyclo- 
pedias or  to  teach  trades, —  is  really  the  important  busi- 
ness of  education.  To  cure  the  sin  and  misery  of  the  adult 
world,  to  do  anything  more  than  palliate  their  hideous 
results,  is  quite  out  of  the  question.  Sin  and  misery 
must  be  prevented  by  so  bringing  up  boys  and  girls  that 
they  shall  not  be,  as  most  of  them  now  are,  physically, 
domestically,  socially  and  morally,  almost  as  ignorant  as 
the  Kaffir  and  the  Hottentot. 

We  are  rapidly  changing  from  a  country-bred  to  a 
city-bred  people;  but  you  cannot  rear  healthy,  normal 
children  in  towns  unless  you  give  them  abundant  play- 
space  and  help  them,  moreover,  to  organize  their  play. 
Hence  the  movement  for  playgrounds,  physical  train- 
ing and  organized  games. 

We  are  fast  being  transformed  from  a  "  handy " 
people  to  one  that  supplies  all  its  needs  at  the  bargain 
counter  or  by  parcel  post;  but  you  cannot  train  the 
senses,  quicken  the  faculties  and  develop  the  gumption 
of  boys  and  girls  unless  you  provide  something  to  take 
the  place  of  the  farm  and  household  work  of  the  simpler 
pioneer  days.  Hence  one  of  the  main  reasons  for  man- 
ual training,  prevocational  training  and  vocational  edu- 
cation. 


THE  WORKADAY  WORLD  77 

We  are  speedily  being  reorganized  from  a  society  that 
gave  free  play  to  the  individual  into  one  where  the  man  is 
lost  in  the  mass,  the  worker  is  swallowed  in  the  machine, 
the  child  is  overpowered  by  the  very  numbers  with  whom 
he  must  work  and  play;  but  you  cannot  preserve  and 
strengthen  the  will,  the  imagination,  the  character,  of 
the  child  unless  you  deal  with  him  as  an  individual  to  be 
developed  in  the  way  that  is  best  for  him.  Hence  the 
crying  need  for  social  education,  for  an  education,  that 
is,  which  gives  free  rein  to  individuality  while  gradually 
preparing  the  child  to  live,  work  and  play  as  an  efficient 
factor  in  the  complex  social  group. 

We  are  rapidly  changing  from  a  homogeneous,  slow- 
growing  people  to  one  having  all  sorts  of  differing  tra- 
ditions and  standards,  with  all  of  us  going  a  fast  and 
faster  pace ;  but  you  cannot  have  moral  young  men  and 
women,  you  cannot  secure  a  sound  civilization,  unless 
from  the  first  the  child  has  definite  ethical  training  and 
is  prepared,  furthermore,  for  what  is  likely  to  be  his 
chief  real  responsibility  in  life:  that  of  parenthood  and 
the  making  of  a  home.  Hence  the  need  for  moral  edu- 
cation and  for  definite  teaching  in  homemaking. 

We  are  fast  being  transmogrified  from  a  folk  self- 
governed  by  the  town-meeting  into  one  boss-governed 
under  the  complex  and  impersonal  system  of  a  modern 
city;  but  you  cannot  have  a  free  people  unless  its  youth 
are  brought  up  in  the  knowledge  and  restraint  of  political 
self-control.  Hence  the  crying  necessity  for  training 
in  citizenship,  for  some  kind  of  education  that  will  do 
for  the  boy  and  girl  of  to-day  what  the  New  England 


78  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

town-meeting  did  for  the  first  ten  generations  of  Amer- 
icans. 

We  are  very  rapidly  indeed  changing  from  a  compar- 
atively poor,  to  an  ultra  rich  people,  what  used  to  be  lux- 
uries having  now  become  necessities ;  but  prosperity  like 
this  greatly  weakens  the  moral  fibre,  for  with  morals 
as  with  muscles,  hard  exercise  is  needed  to  keep  them 
sound  and  strong.  Hence  the  necessity  for  everything 
in  education  that  strengthens,  toughens  and  makes  resil- 
ient the  will.  Moreover,  wealth  means  increasing  lei- 
sure ;  but  leisure  without  a  mind  stored  to  use  it,  is  a  veri- 
table curse.  Hence  the  need  for  training  the  mind,  in 
youth,  to  seek,  understand  and  enjoy  those  things  which 
are  the  essential  food  of  leisure. 

So,  if  we  be  properly  fitted  to  enjoy  it,  this  workaday 
world  of  ours  is  not  so  humdrum  after  all.  The  daily 
"  bothers  "  none  can  escape  in  themselves,  but  the  serene 
mind  makes  them  largely  automatic  and  therefore  negli- 
gible. Hard  work  cannot  be  run  away  from,  but  the 
trained  worker  finds  ceaseless  and  increasing  zest  in  con- 
quering tough  jobs.  Sorrows  and  disappointments  are 
met  at  every  turning ;  but  the  sound  body  buries  them  in 
sleep,  the  poised  intelligence  sees  into  their  deeper  mean- 
ing, the  basic  faith  makes  them  constituent  and  essential 
factors  in  its  life-philosophy.  Youth  loses  infinite  time 
and  wastes  incalculable  effort  in  making  needless  mis- 
takes ;  but  it  is  only  through  such  experience  as  this  that 
he  can  exercise  his  will,  develop  his  imagination  and 
build  up  his  character.  Age  gains  wisdom,  only  to  see 
death  standing  at  his  elbow;  but,  if  he  has  done  his  share, 


THE  WORKADAY  WORLD  79 

he  has  the  reward  of  knowing  that  the  world  is  richer 
and  wiser  through  his  having  lived. 

But  all  this  satisfaction,  this  "  joy  of  living,"  is  denied 
to  the  vast  majority  of  men  and  women,  because  society 
has  failed  to  give  them  much  of  any  capacity  or  knowl- 
edge beyond  that  of  the  dumb  beasts.  Implicit  in  them 
is  the  pure  delight  of  perfect  physical  health  and 
strength;  but  society  lets  them,  through  ignorance  and 
lack  of  physical  training,  drag  through  their  lives  half 
sick.  They  have  the  power  to  procreate;  but  society 
denies  them  a  training  which  would  make  home-keeping 
and  child-rearing  a  joy  and  satisfaction  instead  of,  as  it 
too  often  is,  a  hideous  burden  and  a  hopeless  failure. 
They  have  hands  with  capacity,  minds  with  innate  in- 
telligence, souls  that  aspire  to  the  beautiful  and  fine ;  but 
society  leaves  their  hands  incompetent,  their  intelligences 
dulled  by  routine,  their  souls  drowned  in  the  sordid 
vileness  of  the  streets  and  slums.  And  even  where  there 
are  physical  well-being,  opportunity  and  leisure,  our  edu- 
cational methods  leave  those  more  fortunate  children 
of  men,  as  a  rule,  quite  blind  to  the  real  pleasures  of  life 
and  quite  ignorant  of  the  true  significance  of  living. 
The  pressing  business  ahead  of  us  is  to  change  all  this. 


THE   HUMAN   HOME 

MOST  men  and  women,  and  certainly  all  children,  are 
under  the  delusion  that  education  is  "going  to  school." 
To  them  the  chief  purpose  of  schooling  is  to  cram  the 
child  and  the  youth  with  facts  which  may  be  secreted 
again  through  the  process  of  an  examination,  the  sole 
aim  of  such  an  examination  being  to  push  him  forward 
into  the  next  grade  at  school  or  into  college. 

In  the  true  sense,  however,  education  is  nothing  of 
the  sort.  Real  education  is  simply  the  sum-total  of  the 
physical,  intellectual  and  moral  forces  which,  acting  and 
reacting  upon  you  and  me  and  our  neighbors,  thereby 
create  what  we  call  our  characters. 

Growth  is  the  law  of  all  living  things, —  a  steady 
growth  until  the  highest  point  of  efficiency  is  reached. 
Then  follow,  just  as  inevitably  and  just  as  naturally, 
gradual  decay  and  death.  But  there  must  be  always 
movement.  If  that  movement  is  not  forward,  it  must 
be  backward.  Nothing  in  nature  can  stand  still.  In 
mankind  the  growth  which  shapes  all  later  progress  takes 
place  between  birth  and,  roughly  speaking,  twenty-one. 
In  this  period  the  main  currents  of  life  are  determined, 
the  forming  influences  exert  their  greatest  force.  In 
this  time,  therefore,  the  principal  work  of  education 

80 


THE  HUMAN  HOME  81 

must  be  done.  To  be  effective  and  sound,  education, 
whether  it  be  carried  on  in  the  school,  the  home  or  the 
fields  and  streets,  must  follow  the  laws  of  all  organic 
growth.  It  must  expand,  not  repress,  the  child ;  it  must 
lead,  not  force  him;  it  must  develop  him  towards  com- 
plete ripeness,  not  towards  early  decay.  Education,  in 
short,  must  be  a  steady  process  of  opening  the  individual 
from  within,  not  of  trying  to  shape  him  from  without. 

Moreover,  all  physical  growth,  in  man,  is  simply  a 
development  from  the  simplest  beginnings,  all  mental 
growth  is  but  an  enlargement  of  the  infant's  first  per- 
ception, all  moral  growth  is  a  strengthening  of  the  first 
exercise  of  the  childish  will.  The  athlete,  in  his  physi- 
cal perfection,  is  nothing  more  than  the  puling  infant 
plus  the  milk  and  meat,  the  water  and  air  and  exercise, 
of  a  quarter  of  a  century.  The  scholar,  dealing  with  the 
most  abstruse  problems,  has  the  same  brain  that,  by  as- 
sociating certain  vague  sensations,  produced  the  baby's 
first  real  thought.  The  hero,  whose  moral  force  carries 
him  through  a  seemingly  impossible  crisis,  started  with 
a  will  power  no  stronger  or  better  controlled  than  that 
common  to  infancy.  Each  of  these  men,  in  a  thousand 
devious  ways,  has  been  educated  out  of  the  helplessness 
of  babyhood  up  to  the  physical,  mental  and  moral  power 
of  efficient  manhood. 

Education,  then,  has  triple  work  to  do :  to  build  up  the 
body,  to  feed  and  train  the  mind,  to  develop,  strengthen 
and  direct  the  will.  With  all  these  three,  teaching, 
whether  carried  on  in  the  home,  in  the  school  or  in  the 
community,  must  unceasingly  concern  itself.  Ever  be- 


82  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

fore  the  parent  and  the  teacher  must  be  the  questions :  Am 
I  doing  all  that  is  possible  to  conserve  and  develop  the 
child's  health  ?  Am  I  doing  what  is  best,  not  on  general 
principles,  but  in  this  particular,  individual  case,  to  en- 
large the  child's  mind?  Am  I  losing  no  opportunity  to 
build  up  to  its  highest  possible  point  this  child's  whole 
character  ? 

If  a  child  goes  to  school  every  day  from  his  seventh 
to  his  fifteenth  year,  he  gets,  under  the  best  conditions, 
only  about  eight  thousand  hours  of  schooling;  while  his 
waking  hours,  from  birth  to  his  fifteenth  year,  are  ap- 
proximately eighty  thousand.  One  tenth  of  his  time  in 
the  schoolroom !  But  during  the  remaining  nine  tenths, 
he  is  nevertheless  at  school,  his  teachers  being  the  house- 
hold, the  street  companions,  and  that  big  hurly-burly  of 
experience  which  we  call  his  environment.  And  it  can- 
not be  too  many  times  repeated  that,  for  that  nine  tenths, 
as  well  as  for  the  one  tenth  spent  in  school,  the  home  is 
directly  and  almost  entirely  responsible.  It  is  the  duty 
of  the  father  and  mother  to  choose  as  good  a  school  as 
it  is  possible  for  them,  under  the  circumstances  in  which 
they  live,  to  secure,  and  it  is  their  duty,  also,  to  cooperate 
with  the  teachers  in  making  the  school  instruction  count 
for  something;  but  it  is  still  more  urgently  their  duty 
to  make  sure  that  in  the  nine  tenths  of  the  child's  time 
passed  outside  the  schoolroom  he  gets  as  real  and  effec- 
tive an  education  as  in  that  comparatively  short  time 
during  which  he  is  under  direct  school  influence. 

It  is  idle,  therefore,  to  consider  education  apart  from 
morals.  An  unmoral  education  is,  in  the  very  nature  of 


THE  HUMAN  HOME  83 

things,  immoral  and,  however  highly  finished,  cannot 
be  good.  But  it  is  equally  idle  to  believe  that  morality 
in  education  is  secured  by  the  formal  teaching  of  ethical 
and  religious  truths.  These  truths  must  be  the  basis, 
the  backbone,  the  ultimate  aim  of  all  teaching;  but  they 
must  reach  the  child  through  the  hidden  way  of  sym- 
pathetic understanding,  for  by  that  path  alone  can 
they  actually  enter  his  life  and  form  his  character.  To 
find  that  path  and  build  that  way  should  be  the  aim  of 
every  school,  of  every  community,  —  above  all,  of  every 
home. 

This  mechanical  age  of  ours,  elated  with  its  rapidly 
growing  power  over  nature,  is  elaborating  the  mech- 
anism of  instruction  at  the  expense  of  real  education. 
It  is  lavish  of  apparatus,  penurious  of  teachers,  eager  that 
the  child  shall  have  a  wide  range  of  information,  uncon- 
cerned that  his  character  be  formed.  A  wise  secular- 
izing of  the  schools  which  freed  them  from  dogma  has 
become  a  dangerous  mechanizing  which  is  robbing  them 
of  morality.  The  essential  ethical  principle  of  education 
is  lost  sight  of  in  a  wilderness  of  pedagogical  machines. 

The  remedy  is  simple  and  close  at  hand.  It  is  not  to 
make  the  schools  church  schools,  it  is  not  to  read  more 
chapters  of  the  Bible,  it  is  not  to  teach  formal  ethics  and 
to  repeat  maxims;  it  is  to  educate  the  teachers  in  such 
a  manner  and  to  such  a  degree  that  they  shall  understand 
what  education  really  means;  it  is  to  give  each  teacher 
so  small  a  number  of  pupils  that  she  can  establish  be- 
tween herself  and  each  of  them  a  path  of  understanding 
and  of  sympathy,  and  can  send  all  her  instruction  straight 


84  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

along  that  path  to  the  inner  chambers  where  character 
is  building.  The  essence  of  the  remedy,  however,  is  to 
emphasize  and  reemphasize  the  fact  that  the  home  is  the 
centre  and  mainspring  of  all  education,  and  that  the 
father  and  the  mother,  who  are  the  responsible  heads 
of  that  home,  must  learn  and  must  practice  their 
profession  as  the  chief  and  finally  accountable  educators 
of  the  coming  citizens. 

In  view  of  this  fundamental  and  unalterable  respon- 
sibility of  the  home  for  the  real  education  of  each 
succeeding  generation,  it  is  most  fortunate  that  the 
modern  developments  of  science,  and  the  applications 
of  science  to  the  needs  of  daily  life,  are  strongly 
tending  to  make  fathers  and  mothers,  both  as  parents 
and  as  members  of  the  community,  realize  more  and 
more  every  year  what  the  real,  permanent,  effective 
education  of  their  boys  and  girls  actually  involves.  A 
somewhat  new  attitude  of  moral  optimism  has  released 
us,  too,  from  the  old  belief  in  "  original  sin,"  and  has  con- 
vinced practically  all  those  who  think  that  substantially 
every  child  born  has  the  capacity  for  becoming  an  effi- 
cient citizen,  provided  the  conditions  of  hygiene,  of  edu- 
cation and  of  morals  under  which  he  is  brought  up  are 
favorable  to  physical,  mental  and  spiritual  growth.  If 
he  is  reared  in  a  slum,  his  physical  and  moral  life  will  be 
poisoned  by  the  slum ;  but  if  he  is  brought  up  under  con- 
ditions where  the  laws  of  health  can  be  observed,  the 
laws  of  intellectual  development  followed,  and  the  moral 
laws  obeyed,  a  good  man  or  woman,  with  a  sound  body 
and  a  strong  efficient  mind,  will  almost  surely  result. 


THE  HUMAN  HOME  85 

To  begin,  then,  at  the  foundation:  the  physical  life; 
science  has  taught  us  that  to  have  sound  bodies  we  must 
eat  proper  and  well-cooked  food,  must  keep  ourselves 
and  our  surroundings  clean,  must  breathe  fresh  air, 
must  take  an  abundance  of  rational  exercise,  must  wear 
hygienic  clothing,  and  must  surround  ourselves  with  an 
atmosphere  of  cheerfulness,  good  temper  and  high 
ideals.  The  homemaker,  therefore,  must  know  how  to 
choose  food  and  how  to  cook  it,  must  appreciate  the 
virtues  of  cleanliness  and  fresh  air,  must  understand 
the  hygiene  as  well  as  the  aesthetics  of  clothing,  must 
know  what  proper  exercise  really  involves  and,  of  equal 
importance,  must  understand  how  to  create  a  true 
home  atmosphere.  We  have  the  basis  of  knowledge 
necessary  for  such  training;  science  has  placed  at  our 
disposal  all  the  facts  about  food,  air,  clothing  and  sani- 
tation that  are  necessary.  Most  of  us  still  need,  how- 
ever, to  get  over  the  erroneous  notion  that  anybody  can 
keep  a  house ;  and  we  must,  on  the  contrary,  realize  that 
housekeeping  and  homemaking  is  not  only  a  real  pro- 
fession, but  the  greatest  of  all. 

The  physical  side  of  homemaking,  however,  is  only 
the  foundation  of  the  homemaker's  task.  The  body 
must,  of  course,  be  made  sound,  so  that  it  may  last  for 
eighty,  ninety  or  one  hundred  years ;  but  those  long  years 
will  be  more  than  wasted  if  that  body  is  not  made  also 
efficient ;  and  efficiency  is  a  quality  that  cannot  be  manu- 
factured in  any  school  unless  the  broad  foundations 
of  it  have  been  laid  in  the  home. 

What   are  the   essential   bases   of   efficiency?     Ex- 


86  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

pertness  of  the  senses ;  a  well-trained  mind ;  and 
self-control.  Our  senses  are,  as  a  rule,  very  little  de- 
veloped and  are,  therefore,  exceedingly  inefficient. 
How  few  of  us,  unless  we  are  artists,  really  see  with  our 
eyes;  how  few  of  us,  unless  we  are  musicians  or 
lawyers  or  diplomats,  really  hear  with  our  ears;  what 
a  pitifully  small  proportion  of  us  can  actually  do  any- 
thing with  our  hands  except  grasp  like  monkeys;  and 
above  all,  how  very  few  of  us  have  our  senses  so 
trained  that  they  help  one  another  by  focussing  sight, 
hearing,  touch  and  even  smell  all  at  once  upon  every- 
thing that  comes  along!  Almost  all  of  us  might  be 
many  times  as  clever  as  we  are  in  taking  in  facts  and 
in  drawing  conclusions  had  we  been  trained  in  child- 
hood to  use  our  senses  as  they  ought  to  be  exercised 
and  used. 

It  is  mainly  in  those  earliest  years  and  in  the  home 
that  this  essential  training  of  the  five  senses  can  and 
should  take  place.  While  the  powers  are  growing  and 
developing,  while  they  are  eager  to  learn,  is  the  time  to 
exercise  them  by  making  the  small  child  really  see  with 
its  eyes,  really  hear  with  its  ears,  really  discriminate  with 
its  touch,  and  actually  coordinate  all  its  senses  so  that 
they  shall  form  a  true  and  powerful  partnership.  It  is 
wonderful  how  eager  the  little  child  is  to  use  its  budding 
powers ;  and  it  is  criminal  how  many  little  children,  even 
in  so-called  good  homes,  are  being  punished  for  doing 
not  only  what  they  ought  to  do,  but  what  it  is  our  business 
as  adults  to  see  that  they  should  all  the  time  be  doing. 
It  is  a  small  matter  whether  or  not  we  teach  children 


THE  HUMAN  HOME  87 

the  alphabet  or  two  times  two ;  but  it  is  of  life-long  con- 
sequence to  that  child,  whether  or  not  we  help  him  to 
acquire  a  real,  thorough,  coordinated  use  of  all  his 
physical  powers. 

Efficient  senses  are,  however,  worse  than  useless  un- 
less they  are  under  wise  command ;  and  the  greatest  re- 
sponsibility of  the  homemaker  is  for  the  teaching  of 
self-control.  It  is  superfluous  to  say,  of  course,  that 
the  chief  way  of  teaching  self-control  to  children  is 
through  example ;  and  that  the  "  grown-up  "  who  has  not 
learned  self-control  for  himself,  has  little  hope  of  seeing 
its  growth  in  the  younger  generation.  Not  only  by  ex- 
ample, however,  but  by  direct  teaching,  the  child  must 
be  trained  to  self-control,  to  be  the  master  of  his  own 
special,  individual  will.  The  ruler  of  both  body  and 
mind  is  the  will,  and  the  child  himself  must  be  trained  by 
daily  exercise  to  self-mastery. 

This  teaching  of  self-control  can  best  be  done  by  a 
steady  appeal  to  the  certainty  and  supremacy  of  law. 
Hardly  ever  is  a  child  too  young  to  appreciate  the  funda- 
mental truth:  that  obedience  to  law  means  happiness 
and  that  disobedience  to  law  means  sorrow.  We  elders 
may  have  to  hasten  the  working  of  the  law  by  pro- 
viding artificial  punishments;  but  the  principle  is  early 
grasped  by  the  child,  and,  if  wisely  looked  out  for,  he 
gets  ingrained  into  him  the  idea  that  all  nature,  all  life 
and  he  himself  are  under  the  rule  of  laws  which  cannot 
be  disobeyed  without  suffering,  and  obedience  to  which 
gives  order,  satisfaction  and  true  happiness  to  the  very 
end  of  life. 


88  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

This  training  of  the  will  is  the  most  important  part 
of  education,  is  indeed  education  itself;  and  its  chief 
purpose  is  that  the  animal  side  of  us  may  be  kept  in  sub- 
jection ;  that  greed,  selfishness  and  sensuality,  which  are 
natural  to  us,  may  not  get  the  upper  hand  of  friend- 
liness, unselfishness  and  self-respect,  which  are  also 
natural  to  us.  But  a  secondary  and  almost  equally 
important  outcome  of  the  discipline  of  the  will  is  in  the 
training  of  judgment,  in  accustoming  us  to  make  sound 
decisions,  in  getting  us  into  the  habit  of  doing  nothing 
upon  impulse  but  only  after  careful  thought  and  due 
weighing  of  results.  Training  in  self-control,  there- 
fore, is  the  best  sort  of  intellectual  training;  and  because 
this  is  so,  the  home,  where  the  will  is  trained,  is  also  the 
place  where,  mainly,  the  mind  should  get  its  dis- 
cipline. The  school  exists  primarily  to  impart  informa- 
tion and- to  give  social  experience;  in  the  home  must  be 
prepared  a  mind  fit  to  take  in  and  utilize  that  information 
and  so  trained  in  judgment  as  to  profit  by  the  special 
forms  of  discipline  given  by  the  school. 

A  good  home  atmosphere  and  a  sound  home  training 
must  and  do  result,  therefore,  in  strong,  well-disciplined 
bodies,  in  trained  and  active  minds,  in  self-control,  self- 
reliance  and  self-respect;  and  out  of  these  arises  that 
quality  of  which  the  world  stands,  and  always  will  stand, 
most  in  need:  individuality.  The  rank  and  file  of  men 
and  women  simply  exist.  They  take  life  as  they  find 
it,  add  nothing  to  it  either  of  special  good  or  special 
evil,  and  civilization  is  neither  richer  nor  poorer  be- 
cause of  their  having  lived.  All  advance  in  civilization 


THE  HUMAN  HOME  89 

is  made,  not  by  such  negative  characters,  but  only  by  men 
and  women  who  have  individuality,  who  have,  that  is, 
character,  strength  of  will  and  definiteness  of  purpose. 
The  chief  end  of  every  teacher,  whether  a  pedagogue  in 
school  or  a  parent  in  the  home,  should  be,  therefore,  to 
foster  and  to  strengthen  individuality,  to  encourage  in 
every  boy  and  girl  those  traits  which  are  special  to 
that  child  and  which  are  likely,  under  the  process  of 
evolution,  to  lead  that  individual  to  the  doing  of  some 
real  and  lasting  work  for  the  world.  The  homemaker 
must  not  only  make  the  home  environment  favorable  by 
securing  the  best  physical  condition,  she  must  not  only 
make  it  stimulating  by  thorough  education  of  the  senses 
and  thorough  training  of  the  will;  but  she  must  make 
everyone  in  that  home  feel  the  greatness  of  the  truth 
that  since  everyone  is  an  incalculable  debtor  to  civiliza- 
tion, only  by  doing  some  genuine  and  lasting,  and  if 
possible  some  original,  service  to  that  little  piece  of  the 
world  in  which  he  lives  can  he  begin  to  pay  back  that 
debt. 

Every  physical  illness,  every  mental  weakness,  every 
moral  short-coming  of  every  individual  is  a  drag  upon 
the  progress  of  the  entire  world.  Could  we  measure 
these  things  in  terms  of  money,  we  would  doubtless  find 
that  the  world  is  losing  through  unnecessary  illness,  lazi- 
ness, incompetence,  intemperance,  and  all  the  rest  of  the 
bad  qualities  of  men  millions  upon  millions  of  dollars 
every  year,  to  say  nothing  of  the  happiness  that  these 
physically,  mentally  and  morally  sick  folk,  through  ig- 
norance or  wil  fulness,  are  all  the  time  throwing  away. 


QO  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

And  most  of  this  loss  is  due  to  the  lack  of  home  training, 
is  due  to  physical  ills  which  the  proper  food  and  hygiene 
of  a  real  home  would  have  averted  or  cured,  to  mental 
flabbiness  that  right  home  training  of  the  will  would 
have  overcome,  to  moral  weakness  or  ignorance  that  a 
true,  wise  home  would  have  strengthened  or  cleared  up. 
The  home,  therefore,  is  at  once  the  centre  and  the 
source  of  all  that  is  most  important  and  permanent  in 
education.  As  family  life  strengthens  or  weakens,  a 
nation  grows  or  decays ;  in  the  building  up  of  the  family 
unit  lies  the  chief  interest  and  the  main  resource  of 
modern  education.  The  immediate  object  of  that  edu- 
cation is,  of  course,  the  specific  individual;  but  the  all- 
important  instrument  of  real  education  is,  and  always 
must  be,  not  the  individual,  but  that  group  of  individuals 
which  constitutes  the  family. 


THE   HUMAN   FAMILY 

THE  present  is  the  greatest  period  of  industrial  fer- 
ment and  of  social  change  that  the  world  has  ever  seen. 
Large  questions  of  civilization  are  being  considered  as 
never  before,  and  vast  propositions  for  social  reform 
are  ordinary  themes  for  discussion.  Behind  all  these 
spreading  plans  for  world  peace,  for  universal  educa- 
tion, for  a  socialistic  state,  and  for  all  the  rest  of  the 
things  which  are  to  introduce  the  millennium  is,  how- 
ever, the  fundamental  question  of  the  family.  Are 
we  or  are  we  not,  in  these  days,  preserving  the  family 
life  which  is  the  necessary  basis  of  all  real  civilization? 
If  we  are,  all  these  needed  reforms  will  come  in  good 
time.  If  we  are  not,  then  these  grand  projects  for 
making  the  world  better  are  nothing  more  than  idle  and 
impossible  dreams. 

It  was  John  Fiske  who  first  pointed  out  that  the  rea- 
son why  we  to-day  are  better  than  savages,  why  we  are 
living  in  houses  and  in  cities  instead  of  in  caves,  is  be- 
cause the  young  of  man,  unlike  that  of  all  other  animals, 
is  practically  helpless  for  the  first  three  or  four  years  of 
life.  This  helplessness  makes  it  necessary  for  the 
parents  to  provide  shelter  and  food,  requires  them,  there- 
fore, to  have,  even  among  savages,  a  home  life,  and  most 
important  of  all,  compels  them  to  educate  their  offspring. 
This  educating  of  the  children,  moreover,  is  what  has 

91 


92  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

educated  the  parents  and  has  gradually  brought  mankind 
out  of  the  state  of  the  brute  into  that  of  the  comparative 
refinement,  wisdom  and  moral  power  of  to-day. 

This  helplessness  of  the  children,  furthermore,  has 
made  it  not  only  necessary  for  a  family  to  stay  together, 
it  has  gradually  evolved  the  modern  idea  of  monogamy 
as  the  simplest  and  most  nearly  perfect  type  of  family 
life.  The  development  of  monogamy  has  been  a  con- 
spicuous example  of  that  process  of  scientific  adjustment 
to  conditions  which  lies  at  the  foundation  of  the  whole 
process  of  evolution. 

Why,  aside  from  our  inherited  prejudice  against 
polygamy  and  polyandry,  is  the  monogamic  home  best? 
The  helplessness  and  feebleness  of  infancy  requires  a 
definite  and  settled  place  of  shelter  such  as  is  best  given 
in  a  monogamic  home;  the  senses  of  the  infant  are  so 
delicate  that  the  surroundings  must  be  narrow  and  un- 
varying, such  as  one  finds  in  the  ordinary  household; 
and,  of  greatest  importance,  the  growth  of  the  emotions 
and  the  will, —  which  are  the  most  important  factors  in 
human  development, —  demand  an  atmosphere  of  affec- 
tion and  of  solicitude  such  as  can  be  furnished  only 
where  there  is  the  trinity  of  father,  mother  and  child. 

In  the  home,  whether  it  be  a  palace  or  a  one-room 
tenement,  are  determined  and  practically  settled  for  life : 

The  physical  condition  of  the  child. 

His  knowledge  of  and  acquaintance  with  life. 

The  range  of  his  emotional  and  aesthetic  powers. 

His  will-power  and,  consequently,  his  power  of  self- 
control. 


THE  HUMAN  FAMILY  93 

To  be  more  specific:  if  an  infant  and  small  child  is 
wrongly  fed  or  underfed,  it  fails  to  get  the  proper  phys- 
ical start  in  life,  and,  no  matter  how  much  it  may  have 
to  eat  later,  it  will  usually  be  anemic,  rickety  and  easily 
subject  to  disease.  If  a  child  is  permitted  to  walk  too 
soon  and  to  carry  heavy  burdens  too  early,  its  body  will 
always  be  stunted  and  misshapen.  And  the  sole  persons 
responsible  for  giving  the  child  these  absolutely  essential 
foundations  of  physical  welfare  are  the  father  and 
mother  in  the  home. 

Whether  a  child  gets  right  ideas  concerning  truth, 
honesty,  unselfishness,  temperance,  and  all  the  rest  of 
the  virtues  depends  on  whether  or  not  he  is  brought  up 
in  an  atmosphere  where  the  truth  is  spoken,  honesty  and 
unselfishness  are  practised,  sobriety  is  exercised  and  the 
other  virtues  regarded.  It  depends,  that  is,  on  whether 
he  is  brought  up  in  a  slum  and  on  vice-infested  streets 
or  whether  he  is  brought  up  in  what  the  Puritans  in  a 
narrow  sense,  and  what  we  in  a  broad  sense,  call  a  Chris- 
tian, God-fearing  home. 

A  tremendously  important  part  in  life  is  played  by  the 
emotions  and  by  the  love  and  appreciation  of  the  beauti- 
ful. And  whether  or  not  the  child's  emotions  shall  be 
high  or  low,  whether  or  not  he  shall  know  what  beauty 
means,  depends  on  the  kind  of  environment  which  sur- 
rounds his  earliest  years. 

Finally,  the  character  of  the  child  and  the  man  is 
the  result  of  the  development  of  his  will  power.  And 
who  has  any  interest  in  helping  that  child  get  control  of 
his  will  except  his  father  and  his  mother  ?  Most  of  the 


94  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

really  powerful  influences  outside  the  home  are  inter- 
ested in  breaking  that  will-power  down  rather  than  in 
building  it  up. 

It  follows,  therefore,  that  a  home,  to  be  a  true  home 
in  which  the  child  gets  that  preparation  for  life  to  which 
he  is  entitled,  must  have  in  charge  of  it  persons  who  know 
how  to  surround  the  growing  child  with  right  conditions 
as  to  food,  clothing,  sleep,  cleanliness,  ventilation,  sun- 
shine, exercise,  etc. ;  how  to  bring  knowledge  and  experi- 
ence to  his  growing  consciousness  in  orderly  sequence, 
in  such  ways  as  to  make  a  real  and  lasting  impression 
upon  his  mind,  and  at  such  a  rate  of  speed  that  the  im- 
mature brain  may  be  kept  always  properly  stimulated 
and  nourished  without  being  at  any  time  over-excited 
or  over- fed;  and  how  to  cultivate  the  emotions,  while  at 
the  same  time  strengthening  and  educating  the  will. 

Usually,  however,  when  this  general  program  is 
agreed  to,  it  is  taken  for  granted  that  the  homemaker 
who  is  to  do  all  this  is  the  house-mother.  As  the  magni- 
tude of  the  task  is  beyond  the  strength  of  most  women, 
no  matter  how  willing  or  wise,  the  major  part  of  it  is 
shifted  to  the  servants,  if  there  are  any,  to  the  school, 
to  the  Sunday-school,  and  —  in  not  infrequent  instances 
—  to  the  neighbors  and  the  community  at  large.  But 
home-education  is  not  a  one-man  or  one-woman  task. 
It  is  a  partnership  responsibility,  in  which  every  one  of 
the  household,  educators  and  "  educatees,"  is  concerned; 
in  which  the  children  who  are  to  be  brought  up  should 
have  a  share  as  definite  and  in  its  way  as  important  as 
that  of  those  who  are  doing  the  bringing  up;  and  in 
which  the  whole  community  must  take  a  hand. 


THE  HUMAN  FAMILY  95 

In  other  words,  family  life  should  be  an  organized 
life,  with  unity  of  aim  and  definiteness  of  function  on 
the  part  of  all  involved.  And  it  should  always  be  kept 
in  mind  that,  since  the  family  exists  because  of  the  needs 
of  the  child,  family  life  should  centre  around  the  child 
or  children.  Their  interests  should  be  paramount,  for 
as  those  interests  are  looked  after  or  are  neglected  so 
the  child  will  make  a  success  or  failure  of  his  life.  And 
if  a  sufficient  proportion  of  children,  through  bad  educa- 
tion, make  failures  of  their  lives  the  community  will,  in 
the  next  generation,  go  to  rack  and  ruin. 

Therefore,  the  most  important  business  in  any  com- 
munity is  that  of  properly  running  a  home ;  and  the  most 
important  profession  to  be  prepared  for  is  the  profession 
of  homemaking.  The  chief  interest  of  the  state  is  that 
the  small  children  now  in  the  world  or  to  be  in  the  world 
in  the  next  ten  or  fifteen  years  shall  be  strong  physically 
and  sound  mentally  and  upright  morally,  so  that  they 
will  add  new  wealth  to  the  world  instead  of  being  either 
a  burden  upon  the  wealth  already  existing,  or  an  actual 
danger  to  progress  and  to  civilization  itself. 

The  fundamental  of  any  business,  whether  it  be  mak- 
ing shoes  or  bringing  up  a  family,  is  order.  Order  is 
indeed  Heaven's  first  law;  and  it  is  the  first  law,  there- 
fore, of  that  most  potent  agent  of  Heaven,  the  human 
family.  The  failure  of  so  many  households  which  really 
try,  as  the  phrase  is,  to  "  do  well  by  "  the  children,  is 
because  of  their  total  lack  of  system,  of  plan,  of  that 
order  which  is  fundamental. 

In  business  the  main  things  upon  which  order  depends 


96  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

are  organization  and,  using  the  word  in  its  large  sense, 
bookkeeping.  In  a  successful  business  there  must  be 
someone  responsible  for  every  detail,  he  must  definitely 
know  what  his  responsibilities  are,  and  the  methods  of 
keeping  track  of  every  person  and  of  every  detail  must 
be  so  complete  that  those  at  the  head  may  always  know 
just  where  they  are. 

In  a  family,  no  less,  the  father,  the  mother,  the  other 
adults,  if  there  are  any,  the  servants,  if  any,  and  the 
children  themselves,  must  .have  definite  responsibility 
for  definite  things,  and  must  feel  that  the  whole  success 
of  the  family  life  depends  upon  those  things  being  done 
at  the  right  time,  in  the  right  way  and  with  the  right  re- 
sults. There  has  been  much  jesting  over  the  question 
in  the  last  census  as  to  who  is  the  head  of  the  household ; 
and  that  head  is  usually  pictured  as  a  formidable  female 
towering  over  a  henpecked  man.  But  every  household, 
not  only  in  the  legal  sense,  but  in  its  aspect  as  a  place 
to  bring  up  children,  must  have  a  head,  and  as  a  rule 
that  head  should  be  the  mother.  She  should  lay  out 
the  plan  of  the  household,  devise  its  organization  and 
see  that  the  duties  of  each  person  under  that  plan  or 
organization  are  assigned  and  are  performed. 

Moreover,  having  the  responsibility  for  the  organiza- 
tion, it  devolves  upon  her  to  supervise  the  bookkeeping 
side :  not  only  to  manage  the  household  expenditures  in 
the  narrow  sense,  but  also  to  have  a  system  of  cost-ac- 
counting by  which  she  may  know  both  the  probable 
limits  of  expenditure,  and  also  the  limits  of  outlay  with- 
in the  main  divisions  of  the  household  economy. 


THE  HUMAN  FAMILY  97 

The  first  and  most  important  division  of  that  expendi- 
ture is  for  the  securing  of  bodily  health  and  strength, — 
expenditure,  that  is,  for  food,  shelter,  clothes,  fresh  air, 
sunshine  and  exercise. 

The  second  important  division  of  expenditure  is  for 
education  in  the  larger  sense,  for  the  wise  and  effec- 
tive training  of  the  body,  the  mind,  the  emotions  and  the 
will. 

The  third  and  hardly  less  important  expenditure 
is  for  recreation,  for  the  re-creation  of  body,  mind  and 
soul. 

The  thing  to  be  emphasized  in  connection  with  the  first 
of  these  divisions  of  expenditure,  that  for  bodily  wel- 
fare, is  that  all  these  material  outlays, —  the  largest  and 
fundamentally  the  most  important, —  should  not  be  made 
haphazard,  but  with  the  knowledge  which  to-day  any  in- 
telligent man  or  woman,  though  far  short  of  having  had 
a  college  education,  can  acquire,  with  a  sense  of  relative 
values,  and  with  understanding  on  the  part  of  children 
as  well  as  of  adults  why  they  are  made  as  they  are. 

The  second  division  of  expenditure,  that  for  the  wise 
and  effective  training  of  the  body,  the  mind,  the  emotions 
and  the  will,  is  not  primarily  a  question  of  money  — 
most  of  the  money  df  the  home  will  go  for  the  first  and 
third  divisions, —  it  is  a  question  of  things  much  harder 
to  secure  than  money :  intelligence,  patience,  self-control, 
wise  affection  and  a  sense  of  eternal  values.  As  has 
already  been  suggested,  it  is  in  the  family,  not  in  the 
school  or  the  Sunday-School,  certainly  not  in  the  streets 
and  back  alleys,  that  this  real  training  of  the  mind,  the 


9&  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

emotions  and  the  will  must  take  place.  In  the  home  and 
within  the  compass  of  three  persons,  or  six  persons,  or 
perhaps  a  dozen  persons,  is  an  epitome  of  all  the  world. 
It  is  a  sort  of  rehearsal,  on  a  scale  not  too  large  for  the 
ignorant  and  tender  mind  of  the  child,  of  the  real  drama 
in  which;  as  a  man,  he  must  enact  at  least  a  minor 
part.  And  upon  the  thoroughness  of  that  rehearsal  and 
the  skill  and  wisdom  of  the  older,  experienced  actors  in 
training  the  new  actor,  depends  the  success  of  the  grow- 
ing youth  upon  that  later  stage. 

Moreover,  to  carry  the  metaphor  further,  since  acting 
is  largely  mimicry,  so  the  early  training  of  the  child  is 
largely  imitation.  And  what  it  imitates  most  closely, 
what  becomes  second  nature  to  it  in  all  its  subsequent 
playing  of  the  part  of  life,  are  those  actions  and  opinions 
and  points  of  view  with  which  the  child  has  come  in  con- 
tact within  the  family  itself.  The  training  given  by  the 
household  is  not  so  much,  therefore,  what  the  family 
does,  as  what  it  is.  Those  qualities  of  mind,  of  heart, 
of  will  which  we  would  have  a  child  possess,  he  does  not 
learn,  he  acquires-  or,  rather,  absorbs  from  the  atmos- 
phere of  the  place  in  which  he  is  brought  up. 

The  expenditures  under  this  second  heading,  then,  are 
expenditures  of  self  in  maintaining  self-control,  in  pre- 
senting high  examples  of  living,  in  cultivating  fine  and 
lofty  emotions,  in  creating  for  the  child  an  atmosphere 
in  which  all  the  high  sides  of  his  nature  shall  be  fully  fed 
and  all  the  low  sides  shall  be  starved  and  killed.  Pre- 
cepts will  be  of  little  avail,  if  practice  is  not  parallel  with 
them;  admonitions  to  be  good  and  pure  and  filled  with 


THE  HUMAN  FAMILY  99 

high  ambitions  will  be  laughable,  if  the  preacher  of  those 
things  is  bad,  impure  and  mean.  And  it  is  useless  to 
try  to  cover  these  things  up.  There  is  no  hypocrisy 
through  which  even  the  average  child  cannot  quickly 
penetrate. 

Because  these  expenditures  of  physical  and  moral 
energy  for  the  training  of  the  children  are  so  intangible, 
it  is  almost  impossible  to  deal  with  them,  and  it  would  be 
impossible  to  explain  them  at  all  to  a  foundling  or  to  one 
who  had  not  had  any  sort  of  genuine  home  care.  But 
home  influence  is  not  a  matter  of  chance,  it  is  not  a  thing 
to  be  left  to  grow  up  by  haphazard.  It  is  just  as  defi- 
nite a  duty  of  the  father  and  of  the  mother  as  the  furnish- 
ing of  food  and  clothing,  and,  in  its  way,  it  must  be  sub- 
ject to  the  same  organization  and  the  same  bookkeeping 
as  those  material  things  placed  in  the  first  division. 

Consider,  for  example,  bodily  development.  Having 
looked  after  the  food,  clothing,  fresh  air,  etc.,  there  still 
remains  the  very  large  question  of  physical  exercise,  and, 
from  baby-jumper  up  to  the  training  of  the  collegian, 
regular  exercise  suited  to  the  age  and  physical  strength 
of  the  individual  is  one  of  the  essential  things  of  an  effi- 
cient life.  Exercise,  however,  to  be  really  beneficial, 
must  always  have  in  it  some  of  the  play  spirit.  There- 
fore the  family  life  must  make  provision  for  exercise 
that,  on  the  one  hand,  shall  meet  the  varying  needs  of  the 
several  members  of  the  family  and  that,  on  the  other 
hand,  shall  have  in  it  the  "doing  together"  element 
which  makes  exercise  a  play,  and  therefore  an  effective 
agent  for  development.  Here  is  the  chance  of  which 


ioo  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

most  American  parents  do  not  half  avail  themselves: 
the  chance  of  keeping  themselves  young  while  at  the 
same  time  doing  the  best  thing  for  their  children,  by  play- 
ing games  with  them  and  joining  in  their  sports,  just 
as  far  as  it  is  possible  for  elders  to  do  without  trenching 
upon  the  very  definite  need  of  young  people  to  associate 
in  sports  and  plays  with  those  of  their  own  age. 

Considering  next  the  training  of  the  mind,  the  will 
and  the  emotions,  these,  fortunately,  need  not  be  con- 
sidered separately  for  —  and  this  is  especially  true  of 
home  training — all  these  ought  to  be  educated  to- 
gether, and  the  educating  of  one  of  necessity  trains  at 
the  same  time  the  others.  Here  again,  however,  things 
cannot  be  left  to  chance.  Not  only  must  there  be  es- 
tablished in  the  home  a  standing  good  example  and  a 
steady  ethical  atmosphere  which  cultivate  and  train 
through  imitation,  but  the  father  and  mother  must  de- 
liberately consider  those  things  within  the  ability  of  that 
household  to  secure  which  will  do  most  to  develop  those 
faculties  thoroughly  and  well.  They  must  study,  more- 
over, each  child  as  a  separate  problem,  for  what  would  be 
best  for  strengthening  the  will  of  this  child  would  be 
very  inefficient  in  the  case  of  the  other ;  what  would  have 
a  most  salutary  influence  upon  the  emotional  life  of  the 
elder  child  would  perhaps  be  disastrous  to  that  of  the 
younger.  Of  all  these  things  there  must  be  kept,  so  to 
speak,  an  individual  ledger  account,  and  definite  effort 
must  be  made  to  provide  what  is  needed  for  the  moral 
and  mental  solvency  of  each  member  of  the  family. 

And  all  tied  up  with  this  problem  is  that  of  recreation, 


THE  HUMAN  FAMILY  101 

of  the  "  re-creation  "  of  the  body  and  the  mind.  Ameri- 
cans have  been  very  slow  indeed  in  regard  to  this  side 
of  family  training,  and  have  much  to  learn  from 
the  English,  the  Germans  and  the  French,  as  to  recrea- 
tions that  are  cheap,  that  take  in  the  family  as 
a  whole,  and  that  leave  those  who  take  the  recrea- 
tion rested  and  refreshed,  instead  of  more  jaded  than 
when  they  began.  Most  of  the  ways  of  amusing  them- 
selves that  Americans  indulge  in  are  enormously  ex- 
pensive, fearfully  fatiguing  and  are  entered  upon  not 
for  recreation  but  for  display.  The  quiet  family  excur- 
sions that  the  Germans  used  to  take  before  the  war, 
the  pleasant  little  picnics  of  the  English,  are  things 
almost  unknown  in  this  country;  and  therefore, 
unless  we  have  money  enough  to  keep  automobiles  and 
yachts  and  to  give  extravagant  entertainments,  we  think 
we  cannot  have  a  good  time.  Or  else  the  men  go  off  into 
the  woods,  where  they  can  really  get  next  to  nature  and 
can  relax,  leaving  their  wives  and  daughters  in  a  sum- 
mer hotel,  where  they  fry  in  an  attic  chamber,  eat  canned 
food  and  spend  their  days  gossiping  with  other  forsaken 
females  on  the  piazza. 

It  would  seem  that  wives  and  daughters  are  largely 
responsible  for  the  poverty  of  recreation  in  this  country. 
They  are,  so  many  thousands  of  them,  anxious  to  make  a 
foolish  show,  anxious  to  outshine  some  other  woman, 
anxious  to  do  what  they  cannot,  rather  than  what  they 
can.  To  restore  things  to  their  proper  balance,  the 
family  must  be  taken  as  the  basis  of  recreation,  and  must 
undertake  those  simple  things  which  can  be  afforded  and 
in  which  all  can  share. 


102  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

In  emphasizing  —  as  it  cannot  be  too  strongly  em- 
phasized—  the  fundamental  importance  of  the  family 
life,  we  must  not  forget  that,  like  every  other  good  thing, 
it  is  liable  to  abuse.  There  is  an  intemperance  of  family 
life  just  as  there  is  intemperance  in  eating,  in  self-im- 
provement and  in  recreation.  It  is  not  uncommon  to 
find  families  where  all  the  members  are  true  partners, 
where  each  literally  lives  for  the  happiness  and  welfare 
of  all  the  others.  But  if  they  live  —  as  is  frequently 
the  case  —  wholly  within  and  wholly  for  the  family, 
if  parents  think  only  of  the  children  and  children  only 
of  the  father  and  mother,  then  their  lives  get  narrow 
and  narrower  until  all  of  them  degenerate,  under  the 
law  of  evolution,  into  a  mere  mutual  admiration  society, 
acting  and  reacting  upon  itself  with  absolutely  no  effect 
whatever  upon  the  progress  of  the  world. 

Family  life  must  all  the  time  be  enriched  and  renewed 
by  contact  with  and  by  working  for  the  community 
around  it.  For  that  community  is  the  larger  family 
in  which  the  education  of  the  family  in  the  ordinary 
sense  has  its  exercise  and  motor  effect.  Nature  is  in- 
terested, apparently,  in  communities,  states  and  nations, 
rather  than  in  individuals;  and  only  as  individuals  are 
prepared,  by  their  training,  to  be  of  service  to  the  com- 
munity, do  they  really  count. 

The  basis  of  valuation  of  the  individual  is  that  of 
service;  and  service  always  involves  more  than  one  per- 
son or  one  group.  A  man  cannot  serve  himself  alone 
without  becoming  a  monster  of  egotism.  He  cannot 
restrict  his  service  to  his  family,  without  that  family 


THE  HUMAN  FAMILY  103 

becoming  a  group  of  concentrated  selfishness.  The  only 
way  in  which  the  individual  and  the  family  can,  so  to 
speak,  fulfill  themselves,  is  for  them  to  serve  the  com- 
munity as  a  whole  and  according  to  their  ability. 

What  does  such  service  imply?  It  involves,  on  the 
part  of  the  individual  as  an  individual,  and  on  his  part 
as  a  member  of  the  family,  the  same  cooperation  in  the 
work  of  the  community  as  he  should  exhibit  in  the  work 
of  the  family.  For  the  community  is  nothing  other  than 
a  larger  family  in  which,  on  a  larger  scale,  we  have  the 
same  problems  of  housekeeping,  of  education,  of  moral 
development  and  training  that  are  met  with  in  the  home. 
The  basis  of  good  citizenship  is  sound,  intelligent  family 
training;  and  all  training  in  "civics,"  to  be  understand- 
able, must  be  bottomed  on  knowledge  of  and  experience 
in  a  real  and  effective  family  life. 


THE  HUMAN   COMMUNITY 

"THE  education  of  the  child,"  says  Dr.  Laurie,1  "is 
the  bringing  of  him  up  in  such  a  way  as  to  secure  that 
when  he  is  a  man  he  will  fulfill  his  true  life  —  not  merely 
his  life  as  an  industrial  worker,  not  merely  his  life  as 
a  citizen,  but  his  own  personal  life  thru  his  work  and 
thru  his  citizenship." 

This  wise  and  comprehensive  definition,  with  which 
most  intelligent  Americans  agree,  but  which  -few  seem 
disposed  to  put  in  practice,  requires  that,  in  some  way, 
there  be  given  to  every  normal  child  an  opportunity  to 
become,  within  his  capacity,  an  efficient  worker,  an  in- 
telligent citizen  and  a  true  man.  Can  the  school,  now 
or  ever,  provide  this  comprehensive  opportunity?  No. 
Is  the  community  able,  if  it  will,  to  furnish  it?  Yes. 
That  being  the  case,  the  final  responsibility  for  the  real 
efficiency  of  the  public  schools,  lies  not  with  the  teachers 
but  with  the  citizens. 

Dr.  Laurie's  admirable  definition  suggests,  moreover, 
the  best  hypothesis  upon  which  to  base  education.  This 
hypothesis  is  that  the  child's  nature  is  threefold  and  yet 
indivisible,  that  he  has  a  physical,  a  mental  and  a  moral 
nature,  each  deeply  involved  with  the  others,  and  all  com- 
bining to  form  the  essence  and  end  of  a  human  being: 

1  Institutes  of  Education,  Lect.  II. 
104 


THE  HUMAN  COMMUNITY  105 

character.  Education,  of  whatever  nature,  has  to  deal, 
at  one  and  the  same  time,  with  an  animal  whose  thoughts 
and  impulses,  no  matter  how  complex,  are  conditioned 
upon  his  health;  with  a  thinking  being  whose  physical 
and  ethical  states  are  governed  by  his  percepts  and  con- 
cepts; with  a  willing  (or  moral)  being  whose  appetites 
and  thoughts  are  swayed  by  an  unknown,  inner  force 
called  conscience.  Every  step  in  education  must  rest 
upon  the  premise  that  the  child,  as  well  as  the  man,  is 
simultaneously  an  animal,  a  thinker  and  a  soul. 

Popularly,  however,  education  has  lost  a  large  part 
of  its  real  significance,  and  even  those  who  ought  to 
know  better  have  fallen  into  the  habit  of  associating  it 
with  but  one  of  the  three  phases  of  human  development, 
that  of  the  mind.  Consequently,  since  intellectual  train- 
ing is  peculiarly  the  province  of  a  school,  we  have  per- 
suaded ourselves  that  education  means  simply  schooling 
and,  conversely,  that  the  youth  who  has  been  schooled 
is  educated.  Many  communities  have  indeed  adopted, 
with  more  or  less  enthusiasm,  the  catch-phrase:  "Send 
the  whole  boy  to  school;"  but  most  of  them  as  yet  fail 
to  appreciate  that  the  school  to  which  the  larger  part 
of  the  boy  still  goes  has  unlicensed  teachers,  unsuper- 
vised  studies  and,  too  often,  the  devil  for  headmaster. 

In  primitive  Puritan  days,  the  whole  boy  did  go  to  a 
comprehensive  school  controlled  in  every  department 
by  the  entire  community.  His  mental  training,  by  mod- 
ern standards,  was  pitifully  narrow;  but  his  teachers 
were  literally  God-fearing  men,  and  the  minister,  the 
lawyer  and  the  squire  had  personal  knowledge  of  every 


106  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

boy's  advancement.  His  physical  training  was  rude  and 
laborious ;  but  it  was  mainly  out  of  doors,  and  was  per- 
sonally looked  after  by  the  father  or  the  master,  both 
having  a  direct  interest  in  making  that  part  of  his  edu- 
cation thorough  and  effective.  His  moral  training  was 
hard  and  unlovely;  but,  such  as  it  was,  no  youth  was 
permitted  to  escape  it.  And  over  all  phases  of  the  boy's 
daily  life,  the  parson  and  those  indefatigable  lieuten- 
ants of  his,  the  deacons  and  the  tithingmen,  kept  strict 
watch,  being  held  to  high  supervisory  efficiency  by  that 
vigilant  theocracy  which,  as  their  own  creation,  the  grim 
New  Englanders  liked  better  than  the  laxer  rule  of 
kings. 

Whatever  its  shortcomings,  the  early  New  England 
town  was  an  ideally  many-sided  school  wherein  to  edu- 
cate, in  fact  as  well  as  in  name,  the  threefold  nature  of  a 
growing  boy.  The  range  of  activities  was  limited  and 
the  stage — if  one  may  use  so  scandalous  a  term  —  was 
small;  but  for  that  narrow  theatre  the  training  of  the 
actors  was  strikingly  complete.  Physically,  the  active 
life,  with  its  varied  farm  tasks  and  household  "  chores," 
its  exposure  to  the  weather,  its  cold  sleeping-rooms, 
coarse  fare  and  early  hours,  made  strong,  wiry  men. 
Manually,  the  wide  variety  of  homely  industries,  most 
of  them  requiring  skill,  dexterity,  keen  observation,  cor- 
relation of  head  and  hands,  and  multiform  activities, 
developed  a  Yankee  ingenuity  which  assured  industrial 
success.  Mentally,  the  district  school,  kept  usually  by 
college  students  who,  because  of  primitive  conditions, 
lived  among  the  people  and  knew  the  pupils  and  their 


THE  HUMAN  COMMUNITY  107 

families  through  and  through,  served  at  least  to  foster 
individuality.  Politically,  the  town  meeting,  training 
boys  from  early  youth  in  principles  of  liberty,  democracy 
and  social  responsibility,  and  establishing  in  them  the 
habit  of  free  debate,  was  a  school  of  citizenship  un- 
matched in  history;  while,  ethically,  the  ceaseless  pres- 
sure of  meeting-house  and  public  opinion,  upholding  the 
weak  and  strengthening  the  strong,  kept  the  average  of 
morals  singularly  high. 

To  study  the  substantially  complete  educational  effi- 
ciency of  an  early  New  England  town  is  a  chastening 
experience.  Such  an  investigation  shows  the  absurdity  of 
placing,  as  we  are  too  fond  of  doing,  the  modern  palatial 
school-building  beside  the  "  little  red  schoolhouse  "  and 
bidding  the  awed  spectator  observe  how  much  more  we 
do  for  the  child  than  our  great-grandfathers  did.  In 
many  ways,  of  course,  we  do ;  in  richness  of  school  cur- 
riculum we  are  far  ahead;  but  were  we  to  meet  to-day's 
conditions  as  comprehensively  —  considering  modern 
needs  and  resources  —  as  those  poverty-stricken  fore- 
fathers fulfilled  the  demands  of  their  crude  time,  we 
would  have  to  show  many  things  other  than  piles  of  brick 
and  stone,  many  educational  forces  additional  to  those 
now  active.  Did  some  ancestral  ghost,  gliding  fearfully 
through  marble  corridors  adorned  with  works  of  art,  and 
peering  wonderingly  into  chemical  laboratories  re- 
splendent with  plate  glass,  summon  courage  to  whisper : 
"  Where  do  you  educate  your  children's  morals,  where 
their  hands,  where  their  bodies,  where  their  ingenuity, 
where  their  power  to  work,  where  their  sense  of  duty  to 


io8  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

the  state,  where  their  ability  to  take  efficient  share  in 
self-government  ?  "  what  could  you  and  I  reply  ?  Could 
we  point  to  the  churches,  if  there  were  any  chance  of 
that  ghost  remaining  for  the  Sunday  worship?  Would 
we  carry  him  to  our  city  halls  or  ask  him  to  read 
the  yellow  newspapers,  to  learn  how  we  implant  good 
citizenship?  Would  we  take  him  into  some  tenement 
district  to  show  how  we  develop  human  bodies  and 
immortal  souls? 

Not  that  those  elementary  times  are  to  be  regretted 
or  are  to  be  brought  back  by  living  the  so-called  simple 
life.  Better,  on  the  whole,  an  hour  of  rich,  modern 
complexity  than  a  century  of  that  narrow  Puritan 
Cathay.  The  growth  of  our  multiform  resources,  in- 
tellectual breadth,  industrial  power  and  fabulous  wealth 
has  been  a  glorious  evolution  and  would  be  an  unmixed 
blessing  had  education,  in  the  true  meaning  of  that 
term,  advanced  with  corresponding  speed.  Emphati- 
cally, however,  it  has  not  kept  pace  with  our  rapidly 
differentiating  social  needs ;  and  if  we  do  not  appreciate 
this  lagging  of  genuine  education,  if  the  fathers  and 
mothers,  if  all  the  members  of  a  modern  community,  do 
not  realize  that  they  are  responsible  on  a  large  scale,  as 
the  Puritans  felt  themselves  responsible  on  a  far  smaller 
scale,  for  the  all-round  development  of  all  boys  and  girls, 
then  modern  progress  will  culminate,  and  at  the  same 
time  will  come  to  an  end,  in  rank  materialism. 

One  should  not  exalt  unduly  the  wisdom  and  prescience 
of  the  Puritan  Yankee,  whose  educational  difficulties,  as 
compared  with  ours,  were  trivial.  But  we  cannot  too 


THE  HUMAN  COMMUNITY  109 

highly  extol  his  sense  of  individual  responsibility  and  the 
splendid  results  which  that  conscientiousness  produced. 
Neither  can  we  too  strenuously  maintain  that  real  de- 
mocracy must  be  bottomed  upon  the  conviction  of  at  least 
a  majority  in  every  community  that  each  citizen  is  mor- 
ally liable  for  the  physical,  industrial  and  spiritual  wel- 
fare of  his  entire  city  or  town.  Not  simply  in  extent 
of  resources,  but  also  in  breadth  of  educational  view, 
no  American  community  but  contains  many  persons 
far  in  advance  of  their  Puritan  forebears ;  but,  from  one 
cause  and  another,  the  proportion  of  citizens  having  a 
sense  of  civic  responsibility  is  to-day  much  less;  while 
the  problems  confronting  them  are  incalculably  more 
complex.  The  burning  question  of  democracy  is  how  to 
interest  a  greater  number  in  every  city,  every  town  and 
every  village  in  these  vital  problems,  and  how  to  inspire 
them  to  aid  in  solving  them. 

As  to  rural  communities,  their  educational  problems 
are  not  markedly  greater  than  in  the  early  nineteenth 
century,  but  the  forces  for  meeting  those  problems  are 
vastly  different.  Then  the  small  town  gave  general 
allegiance  to  an  individual  church  having  both  temporal 
and  spiritual  power ;  to-day  half  a  dozen  sects  are  strug- 
gling, often  in  .quite  un-Christian  spirit,  for  mere  domi- 
nation. Then  a  homogeneous  population  swayed  by 
active,  wholesome  public  sentiment,  governed  the  village 
as  a  genuine  democracy ;  to-day,  with  the  strongest  men 
and  women  gone  to  the  cities  and  their  places  filled  by  a 
heterogeneous  and  often  decadent  people,  license,  not 
liberty,  frequently  holds  the  reins  of  power.  Then  the 


no  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

varied  industries  of  farm  and  house  and  village-shop 
served  as  an  education  in  themselves ;  to-day  their  place 
is  taken  by  ill-cared-for  farm  machinery,  crazy  pine  fur- 
niture and  slop-shop  clothes.  Then  village  pride  and 
satisfaction  centred  around  the  school,  feeble  and  insuf- 
ficient though  that  school  might  be ;  to-day,  in  hundreds 
of  rural  communities,  there  is  but  a  grudging,  perfunc- 
tory compliance  with  the  law,  the  wage  of  the  teacher 
being,  in  many  instances,  actually  lower  than  fifty  years 
ago,  her  status  correspondingly  depressed,  and  her  influ- 
ence in  even  greater  measure  gone. 

Serious,  however,  as  the  situation  in  many  rural  places 
has  become,  the  problem  for  them  is  far  less  pressing 
than  for  cities  and  suburban  towns ;  because  here,  at  the 
very  outset,  the  imagination  is  staggered  and  the  en- 
ergy paralyzed  by  the  element  of  size.  This  element 
has  become  so  obtrusive  and  insistent  that,  in  many 
cases,  it  alone  is  grappled  with,  resulting  in  great  school- 
machines  satisfied  to  handle  in  military  fashion  large 
numbers  of  pupils,  to  give  them  some  sort  of  mental 
drill  and  to  drive  them  so  far  through  a  formal  curric- 
ulum as  to  keep  the  number  of  technically  illiterate,  in 
spite  of  almost  overwhelming  immigration,  astonish- 
ingly low.  But  to  believe  that  in  meeting  the  perfunc- 
tory tests  of  registrars  of  voters  the  community  fulfills 
its  educational  duty  is  to  place  ourselves  on  the  level  of 
the  little  girl  who,  having  with  great  difficulty  mastered 
the  alphabet,  asked  with  an  air  of  assured  omniscience: 
"  What  more  is  there  for  me  to  learn  ?  " 

Every   one   of  us,   despite   his   probable   disavowal, 


THE  HUMAN  COMMUNITY  in 

is  party  to  an  elaborate  socialism  which,  being  negative, 
is  largely  ineffectual.  The  necessity  for  self-preserva- 
tion has  driven  us  into  a  kind  of  ex  post  facto  socialism 
which,  at  public  cost,  establishes  hospitals  for  the  sick 
and  insane,  almshouses  for  the  pauperized  and  houses 
of  detention,  jails  and  prisons  for  the  morally  diseased. 
Such  punitive  and  palliative  socialism  is  the  result,  pri- 
marily, not  of  economic  enlightenment,  but  of  collective 
fear.  A  wise  socialism  would  provide  the  ounce  of  pre- 
vention rather  than  the  pound  of  cure  by  furnishing,  at 
common  cost,  a  genuine,  fit  and  thorough  education  for 
all  three  sides  of  the  nature  of  every  child  in  the  com- 
munity. It  needs  no  special  wisdom  to  understand  that, 
if  we  are  to  have  socialism  at  all,  preventive  measures 
are  far  cheaper  than  remedial  ones,  and  that  the  saving 
in  human  souls,  through  such  measures,  is  incalculably 
greater.  To  ward  off  idleness,  disease,  crime,  pauper- 
ism and  their  attendant  evils  from  naturally  well-dis- 
posed children  costs  immensely  less  than  to  try  to  cure 
them  in  hardened  adults,  and  it  means,  moreover,  the 
moral  preservation  of  many  now  wasted  lives.  There- 
fore, unless  one  adopts  an  attitude  wholly  laissez  faire 
by  saying  that  the  state  should  do  nothing  at  all  for 
self-protection,  unless  one  is  ready  to  give  up  prisons, 
hospitals,  police,  almshouses  and  all  kindred  things, 
then  he  must  acknowledge  that,  on  economic,  if  on  no 
other  grounds,  the  state  has  not  only  a  right,  it  has  a 
solemn  duty  to  provide  means  for  developing  every  boy 
and  girl  physically,  mentally  and  morally,  to  the  full 
measure  of  each  child's  capacity. 


U2  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

Of  course  much  is  being  done  in  all  these  directions 
towards  right  education ;  but  such  work  has  thus  far  been 
sporadic,  desultory  and  vaguely  experimental.  What 
is  being  attempted  toward  comprehensive  education  has 
not  the  whole  community,  but  some  individual,  club  or 
association  behind  it;  and  that  little  is  subject,  moreover, 
to  the  whims  and  spasms  of  economy  of  kaleidoscopic 
school  committees.  Before  real  advance  can  be  made, 
there  must  be  approximate  consensus  of  expert  opinion, 
an  authoritative  policy,  fixed  without  being  rigid,  and, 
above  all,  an  appreciation  on  the  part  of  the  public  that 
education  really  pays  only  when  it  is  not  cheap ;  that  not 
until  we  reach  a  high  level  of  expenditure  are  we  likely 
to  secure  a  general  schooling  worth  paying  for  at  all. 
At  present  the  smell  of  the  bargain  counter  is  over  the 
public  schools,  cheapening  the  teachers,  substituting 
shoddy  for  genuine  mind-stuff,  depriving  children  of  the 
right  of  self-development,  and  defrauding  the  commu- 
nity, economically  and  morally,  to  an  extent  immeasur- 
able. 

Such  a  program  of  genuine  education  as  this  demands 
adequate  revenues  and  the  spending  of  them  by  men  and 
women  who  will  use  them  honestly,  wisely  and  effec- 
tively. In  other  words,  we  are  confronted  with  the  for- 
midable task  of  making  democracy  itself  efficient  before 
we  can  give  an  education  adequate  to  the  needs  of  de- 
mocracy. To  attempt  what  education  ought  to  undertake 
while  the  control  of  great  sums  of  money  and  huge  bod- 
ies of  children  is  left  in  such  hands  as  those  into  which, 
stupidly  and  lazily,  we  so  often  surrender  our  city  or 


THE  HUMAN  COMMUNITY  113 

suburban  governments,  would  mean  financial  disaster 
and  an  educational  cataclysm.  Therefore  the  funda- 
mental responsibility  of  every  community  toward  educa- 
tion is  to  clean  its  municipal  house. 

But  you  and  I  and  our  neighbors  are  the  state  and  it 
is  our  duty,  therefore,  to  make  the  government  genuinely 
democratic,  to  preserve  and  develop  all  the  children  of 
the  community  on  the  physical  side,  by  cleaning,  mate- 
rially and  morally,  the  whole  city,  town  or  village,  de- 
stroying slums,  providing  playgrounds,  baths  and 
gymnasiums,  keeping  the  supply  of  milk  and  other  indis- 
pensable foods  clean,  pure  and  cheap,  and  employing  ra- 
tional means  to  educate  mothers  in  hygienic  living.  All 
this  is  socialistic,  but  it  is  wise  socialism ;  while  to  estab- 
lish hospitals,  almshouses,  homes  for  the  insane  and 
crippled,  to  say  nothing  of  prisons  filled  with  victims  of 
foul  environment  and  want  of  training,  without  at  the 
same  time  attempting  to  stop  the  supply  of  inmates  for 
those  institutions,  denotes  a  very  stupid  and  extravagant 
socialism. 

The  second  series  of  problems  for  you  and  me  and  our 
neighbors  to  take  up  are  those  relating  to  that  basis  of 
civic  life  and  morals  —  the  family,  our  families. 
Therein  most  of  the  child's  training  will  take  place 
whether  we  want  it  to  or  not,  and  therein,  almost  without 
exception,  the  ultimate  usefulness  or  worthlessness  of 
the  boy  or  girl  will  actually  be  determined. 

The  next  business  before  us  citizens  is  to  prepare  the 
child  for  that  industrial  usefulness,  to  himself  and  to 
the  community,  which  is  fundamental  to  good  citizenship. 


ii4  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

He  is  virtually  but  half  educated  so  long  as  he  has  not 
acquired  such  necessary  industrial  qualifications  as  man- 
ual control  and  dexterity,  cooperation  of  brain  and  hand, 
quickness  of  adaptation,  fertility  of  resource,  concentra- 
tion, "  gumption,"  and  has  not  been  given,  on  top  of 
these,  ample  opportunity  to  secure  the  groundwork  of 
some  special  trade  or  industry.  Without  such  essen- 
tials, he  is  likely  to  join  that  appalling  army  of  "  float- 
ers "  who,  without  a  trade  or  any  chance  of  learning 
one,  wander  from  one  casual  occupation  to  another, 
depressing  wages,  inducing  enormous  industrial  waste 
and  swelling  at  last  the  costly  ranks  of  vagrancy. 

Having  thus  provided  for  his  physical  welfare,  for 
the  right  family  atmosphere,  and  for  the  training  of  his 
body  and  hands,  it  would  be  logical  to  declare  that  we 
should  next  take  up  the  task  of  furthering  the  child's 
mental  and  moral  growth.  But,  practically,  there  is  no 
such  task  remaining.  Give  a  normal  child  hygienic  and 
uplifting  surroundings,  with  plenty  of  opportunity  for 
physical  and  manual  development,  make  every  effort  to 
keep  sound  the  family  influences  which  shape  his  life, 
imbue  him  with  those  qualities  which  lie  at  the  root  of 
industrial  effectiveness,  surround  him  with  the  evidences 
and  results  of  good  government,  and  —  provided  only 
that  he  be  furnished  with  the  necessary  tools  of  human 
communication,  such  as  reading,  writing  and  numbers 
—  the  mental  growth  and  moral  stability  of  that  child 
are  made  almost  absolutely  sure. 


II.     IN    INDUSTRY 


THE    BOY    IN    BUSINESS 

NOT  so  very  long  ago  the  merchant,  the  manufacturer, 
the  teacher,  the  young  man  and  the  public  in  general 
were  under  the  spell  of  the  boys'  magazine  wherein  the 
first  prize:  the  prize  of  partnership  in  the  business  and 
marriage  with  the  "old  man's  "  daughter,  was  awarded 
to  the  boy  who  kept  his  hands  clean,  brushed  his  shoes, 
picked  up  stray  pins  on  the  office  floor  and  carefully 
saved  the  twine  from  his  employer's  parcels.  To  do 
these  things  was  indispensable ;  but,  besides  that,  the  as- 
pirant for  partnership  (and  the  daughter)  must  also, 
according  to  the  story-books,  write  a  perfect  hand,  never 
make  a  mistake  in  addition,  never  forget  a  message, 
never  have  a  deceased  grandmother  on  the  afternoon 
of  the  ball-game,  never  think  of  aught  except  mastering 
every  detail  of  the  business,  never,  in  short,  be  any- 
thing but  the  kind  of  prig  that  real,  red-blooded  boys 
are  not. 

The  so-called  Manchester  school  of  political  economy 
was  built  around  a  supposed  economic  man  wholly  un- 
like any  human  being  ever  born.  Consequently,  there 
were  promulgated  for  nearly  a  century  a  lot  of  solemn 
fallacies  which  have  given,  and  are  still  giving,  endless 
trouble  to  civilized  society.  In  much  the  same  way,  the 

"S 


n6  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

supposed  demands  of  business  upon  boys  have  crystal- 
lized around  these  story-book  heroes  and  have  led  the 
business  man,  the  boy  and  the  boy's  teacher  into  all 
sorts  of  difficulties,  misunderstandings  and  wild-goose 
chases  after  educational  impossibilities. 

It  may  be  that  the  story-book  boy  and  the  story-book 
employer  —  and  even  the  daughter  —  did  exist  at  some 
period  anterior  to  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century ; 
but  since  that  time  all  three  have  been  as  extinct  as  the 
dodo;  yet  much  of  the  thinking  and  much  of  the  talk 
about  the  demands  of  business  are  based,  even  now,  upon 
these  ancient  and  mendacious  tales. 

We  must  get  from  under  the  obsession  of  these  ro- 
mantic fallacies  and  face  the  facts.  The  clean  hands, 
blacked  shoes  fallacy  has  ruined  thousands  of  boys  who, 
if  they  had  pitched  in  and  got  their  hands  dirty,  would 
have  turned  out  first-rate  mechanics  and  mill  men,  in- 
stead of  sixth-rate  clerks.  The  pin-picking  and  twine- 
saving  fairy-tales  have  started  many  a  boy  on  the  down- 
ward path  of  petty,  two-cent  economies,  instead  of  on  the 
upward  path  of  large-minded,  far-seeing  business  poli- 
cies. While,  as  for  the  other  things  demanded  by  the 
story-books,  they  are  about  as  obsolete  as  quill  pens  and 
sealing-wax. 

Who  really  cares  about  long-hand  writing,  when  all 
real  business  to-day  is  done  by  shorthand  and  the  type- 
writer ?  What  is  the  use  of  drilling  a  boy  who  has  cost 
the  community  $4000  into  becoming  a  fairly  accurate 
adding  machine,  when  one  can  buy  an  absolutely  accur- 
ate metal  one  for  a  hundred  dollars  ?  Why  lay  so  much 


THE  BOY  IN  BUSINESS  117 

stress  upon  errand  running,  when  the  telephone  takes 
and  returns  all  messages?  Why  talk  about  learning 
all  the  ramifications  of  an  industry,  when  the  main  hope 
of  business  success  is  in  becoming  a  first-rate  specialist  ? 
Why  even  specify  that  the  boy  shall  know  how  to  wield 
a  broom,  when  the  incorporated  cleaning  company  will 
sweep  the  offices  and  sweep  them  well  for  far  less  money 
than  even  the  wages  of  a  greenhorn  ? 

Should  the  present  agitation  over  vocational  education 
come  to  nothing —  which  is  inconceivable, —  it  will  have 
been  worth  while  if  it  forces  teachers,  boys  and,  eventu- 
ally, employers  to  ask  themselves  straight  questions  and 
to  face  actual  conditions.  What  does  modern  business 
really  require  of  the  average  boy?  How  fully  can  the 
boy  meet,  or  can  he  be  trained  to  meet,  those  require- 
ments? And  finally,  what  can  the  school  do  and  how 
far  can  it  go  in  bringing  the  boy  into  line  with  the  rea- 
sonable demands  of  a  rational,  up-to-date  mercantile 
or  manufacturing  concern  ? 

Just  now  everybody  is  in  a  turmoil  and  pother  over 
all  three  of  these  problems ;  for  all  of  us :  business  men, 
boys  and  schools,  are  in  a  transition  state.  Business 
itself  is  in  the  travail  of  readjustment  —  as  witness  the 
attempted  regulation  of  it  by  the  Congress  and  the 
states,  and  as  witness,  also,  the  vogue  of  anything  that 
labels  itself  scientific  management.  The  young  man, 
still  reading  the  old  story-books  about  business,  is  find- 
ing out  that  those  tales  and  the  real  conditions  are  not 
even  fourth  cousins  one  to  another.  While  the  schools, 
tired  of  putting  boys  through  the  treadmill  work  de- 


n8  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

manded  by  formal  college  entrance  examinations,  and 
looking  for  some  better  incentive  to  hold  before  the  pu- 
pil, are  turning  (generally  with  more  eagerness  than 
knowledge)  towards  preparation  for  business  as  some- 
thing at  once  tangible  to  them  and  interesting  to  the 
youth. 

But  it  is  a  tremendous  point  gained  that  all  three  of 
them:  business  man,  boy  and  pedagogue,  are  working 
at  the  same  problem,  each  from  his  own  angle  of  vision, 
but  all  seriously ;  the  business  man  being  desperately  in 
earnest  as  he  finds  that  profits  are  in  inverse  ratio  to 
lack  of  really  trained  men ;  the  boy  being  more  and  more 
driven,  by  modern  competition,  to  weigh  the  problems  of 
his  after-school  vocation ;  and  the  schools,  as  the  educa- 
tional tax  gets  heavier  and  heavier,  feeling  ever  more 
keenly  the  need  of  showing  tangible  returns  for  the  mil- 
lions given  every  year  to  their  support. 

No  business  man  can  have  the  face  to  say,  however, 
that  those  millions  are  thrown  away  so  long  as  he,  the 
average  manufacturer,  is  every  day  wasting  so  much 
good  material  (both  human  and  inanimate)  through  his 
haphazard,  antiquated  and  unscientific  ways.  But 
since  he  is  manfully  buckling  down  to  the  problems  of 
real  conservation  in  manufacturing,  transporting  and 
selling  goods,  so  must  the  teacher,  also,  get  down  to  actu- 
alities. For  in  all  industries  the  chief  element  to  be  con- 
served is  the  human  element;  and  the  teacher  is  paid 
by  the  state  to  educate,  guide  and  give  a  right  start  to 
his  quota  of  those  boys  and  girls  who  are  to  be  the  pro- 
ducers, distributors  and  consumers  of  the  coming  time. 


THE  BOY  IN  BUSINESS  119 

For  years  and  years  everybody  has  been  saying  that  the 
real  work  of  the  schools  is  to  produce  good  citizens ;  but 
no  one,  broadly  speaking,  can  be  a  good  citizen  unless  he 
is  an  able  producer  and  an  intelligent  consumer.  Those 
are  the  cornerstones  of  good  citizenship.  Education 
that  is  not  founded  upon  them  produces  dreamers,  para- 
sites and  social  anarchists.  Education  that  is  founded 
upon  them  is  at  least  in  line  to  produce  self-reliance, 
self-respect  and  social  responsibility,  the  three  main 
bases  of  sound  citizenship. 

Therefore,  it  is  not  merely  the  teachers  in  the  com- 
mercial school,  or  in  the  commercial  department  of  the 
high  school,  who  must  take  the  problems  of  modern 
business  seriously,  it  is  every  teacher.  And  however 
high  the  ideals  of  all  teachers  should  be,  however 
strongly  they  should  insist  upon  breadth  and  culture  and 
"  uplift  "  for  their  pupils,  every  one  of  those  noble  things 
of  education  should  be  soundly  bottomed  upon  the  no  less 
noble  demands  of  self-respecting,  intelligent,  purposeful 
winning  of  the  daily  bread.  What  higher  and  finer  goal 
for  all  school  life  than  the  founding  of  a  family  and  the 
rearing  and  training  of  the  next  generation  ?  But  how 
absolutely  bound  up  with  that  true  ideal  of  a  civilized 
state  is  the  ability  to  earn  a  living,  in  ways  congenial  to 
the  earner  and  in  such  an  amount  that  ease  of  mind, 
comfort  of  body  and  education  for  the  mind  and  soul 
shall  follow  for  the  worker  himself  and  for  those  de- 
pending on  him ! 

Using  the  word  "  business  "  to  cover  all  the  fields  of 
human  activity  along  material  lines :  the  fields  of  produc- 


120  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

tion,  distribution  and  consumption,  every  boy  and  girl 
in  every  school  is  going  to  find  his  chief  interests  and  his 
chief  medium  for  development  in  the  business  world. 
Therefore,  every  teacher  should  understand,  at  least 
in  a  broad  way,  what  business  is,  what  it  demands  and 
how  those  demands  are  to  be  met, —  so  far  as  they  can 
be  met, —  by  the  school. 

Obviously,  however,  the  most  zealous  of  teachers 
could  not  acquaint  himself  intimately  with  more  than  one 
general  line  of  business  activity;  and  it  is  a  serious  ques- 
tion whether  or  not,  if  he  had  so  trained  himself,  he 
would  not  then  be  doing  the  teaching  profession  a 
service  by  leaving  it.  The  teacher  must  never  for- 
sake the  teaching  point  of  view:  the  view,  namely, 
that  his  duty  is  not  to  train  the  boy  for  business,  but 
to  use  business  as  a  powerful  instrument  for  training 
the  boy.  To  do  this,  however,  the  teacher  must  under- 
stand not  only  boys  in  general,  but  also  business  in 
general.  And,  however  great  may  be  the  differences 
between  manufacturing  and  merchandizing,  between 
banking  and  baking,  there  are  certain  fundamentals 
characteristic  of  substantially  every  branch  of  that  pro- 
duction, distribution  and  consumption  of  commodities 
which  we  gather  under  the  one  comprehensive  term: 
modern  business. 

The  most  striking  characteristic  of  modern  business 
is  the  rapidity  with  which  it  is  moving  from  a  competi- 
tive to  a  cooperative  basis.  This  is  resulting,  on  one 
hand,  in  the  "  trusts  "  and  other  combinations,  which 
furnish  so  much  good  copy  for  the  newspaper  and  the 


THE  BOY  IN  BUSINESS  121 

congressman;  on  another  hand,  in  the  so-called  public 
service  corporations,  wherein  quasi-public  needs  are  sup- 
plied by  quasi-private  bodies;  on  another  hand,  in  that 
genuine  cooperative  production  and  distribution  with 
which  we  are  less  familiar  than  are  the  Europeans ;  and 
finally,  in  that  public  ownership,  pure  and  simple,  which 
many  modern  politicians  are  hastening  to  promise  to  the 
people  in  exchange  for  the  people's  votes. 

But,  in  whatever  form  it  appears,  cooperation  results 
in  two  things :  bigness  and  complexity.  When  two  men 
form  a  partnership,  the  profits  may  be  out  of  all  propor- 
tion to  the  business  paraphernalia.  But  when  oil  pro- 
ducers get  together,  and  then  (at  the  behest  of  Con- 
gress) unmix  themselves  again;  when  the  "elevateds" 
that  run  below  the  streets,  the  "  subways  "  that  run  above 
the  ground,  the  tunnels  and  the  surface  lines,  knit  them- 
selves into  a  single  great  transportation  cobweb;  when 
the  workingmen  of  a  whole  county  decide  to  buy  their 
flour  at  a  single  purchase;  and  when  forty  cities  and 
towns  combine  to  supply  themselves  with  water  —  then 
there  results  not  only  a  bigness  that  has  taught  us  -to  talk 
in  billions  as  easily  as  our  fathers  talked  in  hundreds  of 
dollars,  but  also  a  complexity  which  staggers  us  poor 
outsiders  and,  there  is  reason  to  believe,  staggers  the  in- 
siders as  well. 

The  third  feature  of  modern  business,  growing  natu- 
rally out  of  the  characteristics  of  bigness  and  complexity, 
is  that  profits  to-day  are  made  by  the  geometrical  pro- 
gression of  innumerable  small  gains,  instead  of  through 
the  adding  together  of  a  few  large  gains.  Selling  one  or 


122  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

two  hundred  things  at  a  good  profit  in  a  country  store 
in  New  York  State  brought  in  to  Mr.  Woolworth's  em- 
ployer a  few  thousand  dollars  a  year.  Selling  millions 
of  things  for  not  exceeding  ten  cents  each  enabled 
Mr.  Woolworth  himself  to  capitalize  at  $75,000,000  and 
to  erect  the  highest  building  in  the  world.  The  mining 
fortunes  of  yesterday  were  made  by  working  the  richest 
veins  and  pockets,  leaving  the  rest  as  waste.  The  min- 
ing fortunes  of  to-morrow  will  be  made  from  the  dump- 
heaps  of  abandoned  plants.  The  day  of  the  telescope  in 
business,  the  day  of  seeking  new  worlds  and  skimming 
the  cream  of  their  natural  resources,  has  gone  by;  and 
the  day  of  the  microscope  in  business,  of  getting  infini- 
tesimal profits  infinitely  multiplied,  has  come.  Thus  far 
we  have  been  a  world  of  wasters ;  henceforth  we  are  to 
be  a  world  of  savers,  and  are  thus  to  outwit  Malthus  and 
to  make  the  world's  resources  not  less,  but  greater,  by 
every  added  baby  born. 

The  fourth  characteristic  of  modern  business,  conse- 
quently, is  (in  merchandizing)  frequent  "  turn-overs  " 
and  (in  manufacturing)  the  utilization  of  what  used  to 
be  called  waste.  The  stream  of  trade  flows  so  fast 
through  a  modern  department  store  that  the  one  cent 
profit  here  and  the  two  cents  profit  there  aggregate  in 
the  course  of  the  year  a  huge  amount  of  money.  Ac- 
cording to  their  own  statement,  the  beef  barons  actually 
lose  on  sirloin  steaks  and  choice  cuts  of  pork;  where 
their  profits  are  made  is  in  converting  every  scrap  of 
the  animal's  carcase  into  something  that  can  be  sold. 

To   keep    a    river    of    business    flowing    through    a 


THE  BOY  IN  BUSINESS  123 

great  store,  and  to  make  it  profitable  to  save  every  hair 
of  every  beast  in  the  Chicago  stockyards,  however,  there 
must  be  highly  developed  organization,  highly  compli- 
cated machinery  and  just  as  little  as  possible  of  that 
most  expensive  of  motive  powers,  the  human  hand. 
Human  hands  are  still  wanted,  and  in  proportionately 
greater  numbers  than  ever  before  in  history,  but  merely 
as  servants  to  machines  that  multiply  hundreds  and  thou- 
sands of  times  that  initial  force.  It  is  nonsense,  how- 
ever, to  talk  of  this  as  slavery  to  machinery.  On  the 
contrary,  it  is  mastery  of  the  forces  of  nature  — an  ever 
increasing  mastery,  which  is,  so  to  speak,  kicking  the 
brute  laborer,  the  pick-and-shovel  man,  up  into  the  ranks 
of  the  machine-user,  and  is  kicking  the  machine-user  up 
into  the  ranks  of  the  organizer,  those  ranks  where  brains 
are  every  day  setting  hundreds  and  thousands  at  new 
work,  and  every  day  bringing  what  used  to  be  luxuries 
down  to  the  horizon  of  the  commonest  man.  The  cost 
of  living  is  high,  not  because  of  the  scandalous  luxury 
of  the  rich,  but  because  of  the  commendable  luxury  of 
the  poor.  It  is  true  that  the  desire  for  the  good  things 
of  life  is  growing  somewhat  faster  than  the  devices  and 
economies  of  modern  industry  can  bring  those  good 
things  within  reach;  but  this  is  simply  a  question  of 
gradual  adjustment.  And  the  fact  that  more  men  are 
every  day  wanting  and  demanding  more  things  is  one 
of  the  surest  guarantees  of  a  continuous  and  genuine 
prosperity. 

An  inseparable  accompaniment  of  machinery,  how- 
ever, is  speed.     Therefore,  the  next  notable  character- 


124  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

istic  of  modern  business  is  whirlwind  pace.  Thirty 
years  ago,  Boston,  New  York  and  London  were  horse- 
car  towns,  with  clerks  nodding  over  pigskin  ledgers, 
errand  boys  playing  marbles  in  the  roadway,  with  no 
telephones,  no  rapid  transit  in  the  modern  sense,  with 
scarcely  any  devices  for  making  speed  or  saving  time. 
To-day,  even  London,  the  archetype  of  conservatism,  is 
a  whirlpool  of  motor-buses,  speeding  men  and  clamor- 
ing advertisements. 

Consequently,  not  merely  what  the  business  man,  but 
what  modern  business  itself,  demands  of  the  high  school 
graduate  is  rational  and  orderly  speed.  In  the  high 
school,  in  the  schools  below,  in  that  larger  school,  the 
community,  and,  above  all,  in  the  boy's  home,  he  must 
have  been  trained  (if  he  would  succeed  in  business  and, 
therefore,  in  good  citizenship)  to  "  go  the  pace,"  not  of 
dissipation,  but  of  modern  industry. 

Since,  however,  no  one  can  get  speed,  without  a  break- 
down, out  of  a  weak  or  badly-built  engine,  so  one  cannot 
get  efficiency  from  a  half-sick  or  ill-developed  youth. 
Consequently,  now  as  never  before,  the  business  world 
must  have  boys  who  are  sound  in  body  and  in  nerves 
and  who  know  the  value  of  good  health,  clean  living, 
exercise,  right  eating  and  fresh  air.  The  average  boy 
of  eighteen  has  cost  the  community  at  least  $4,000  to 
"  raise,"  —  most  high  school  boys  have  cost  a  good  deal 
more.  Moreover,  to  train  that  $4,000  boy  to  the  point 
where  he  is  a  real  asset  in  the  business  costs  that  busi- 
ness a  large  additional  amount.  Therefore,  the  com- 
munity cannot  afford  —  the  business  into  which  the  boy 


THE  BOY  IN  BUSINESS  125 

goes  cannot  afford  —  to  have  him  break  down  because  of 
a  weak  body,  poor  nerves  or  dissipation,  just  when  he  is 
beginning  to  bring  in  fair  returns  upon  his  capital  cost. 
The  first  thing,  then,  that  modern  business  demands  in 
its  apprentices  is  sound  bodies,  steady  nerves  and  a  good 
working  knowledge  of  hygiene.  These  things  are  worth 
much  more  than  a  knowledge  of  double-entry  bookkeep- 
ing; and  the  school,  in  cooperation  with  the  parents  and 
the  community,  must  provide  this  kind  of  teaching. 

The  next  essential  for  speed  is  quickness  of  mind, 
nimbleness  of  body  and  good  coordination  among  all 
the  senses.  One  doesn't  acquire  these,  however,  by 
stewing  all  day  at  a  desk  or  in  an  armchair,  over  a  lot 
of  books.  One  gets  them  by  using  all  his  muscles  and 
all  his  senses  in  a  wide  variety  of  exercises,  mental, 
physical  and  manual,  directed  in  educative  ways  and  by 
rational  progression  towards  well-defined  ends,  —  not 
occult  ends,  seen  only  by  the  inner  consciousness  of  the 
teacher,  but  tangible  ends,  visible  to  the  boy  himself. 

The  third  essential  of  speed  is  team-play.  Every 
schoolroom  should  be  an  organism  as  well  knit,  as  thor- 
oughly balanced,  as  purposeful  as  a  Varsity  football 
team;  for  that  is  the  kind  of  coordination  towards  which 
every  mercantile  and  manufacturing  enterprise  is  rap- 
idly, and  with  full  understanding  of  its  value,  tending. 
The  teacher  who  still  uses  competition  instead  of  coop- 
eration as  the  main  spur  towards  speed,  is  woefully 
behind  the  times  and  loses  that  most  valuable  aid  in 
education :  working  together  for  a  common  result. 

Effective    team-play,     however,     is     founded    upon 


126  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

promptness,  ready  obedience,  willingness  to  subordinate 
one's  self  to  the  general  good,  enthusiasm  and  that  com- 
prehensive quality  called  loyalty.  All  these  are  at  the 
very  root  of  every  successful  enterprise ;  and  what  mod- 
ern business  asks  most  eagerly  is  that  the  boys  who  come 
into  it  shall  obey  orders  intelligently  and  promptly ;  shall 
see  how  much,  instead  of  how  little,  they  can  do  to  fur- 
ther the  interests  of  the  concern ;  and,  in  whatever  they 
do,  shall  show  the  essential  virtues  of  team-play :  enthu- 
siasm, self-subordination  and  unflagging  loyalty. 

But  a  man  cannot  be  enthusiastic  and  effective  if  he 
lives  in  a  mere  groove.  Therefore,  while  the  youth  who 
is  to  succeed  in  the  complexities  of  modern  industry 
must  be  a  specialist,  he  must  be  a  broad  one.  A  man 
may  move  fast  in  a  treadmill,  but  he  gets  nowhere.  On 
the  other  hand,  a  motorist,  though  tied  to  a  roadway, 
makes  his  twenty-five  miles  an  hour  because  he  sticks 
to  that  well-surfaced  track  instead  of  trying  to  wander 
through  bushes,  potato-fields  and  gravel  banks.  He 
does  not  leave  the  road,  but  he  sees  and  knows  the  whole 
surrounding  territory.  Consequently,  a  fourth  essen- 
tial of  speed  is  thoroughness  in  one  line,  with  an  out- 
look into  many  lines,  with  an  intelligent  interest  in  many 
things,  and  with  a  broad  attitude  towards  all  human 
interests. 

And  a  fifth  essential  of  speed  is  the  cutting  of  red 
tape.  Circumlocution,  that  curse  of  the  law,  is  being 
rapidly  driven  out  of  business,  because  a  merchant  or 
manufacturer  cannot  afford  to  waste  time  and  lose  head- 
way in  doubling  and  twisting.  If  there  is  a  short  way 


THE  BOY  IN  BUSINESS  127 

of  doing  a  thing  —  be  it  in  business  or  in  school,  —  do 
it ;  and  save  time,  money  and  nervous  energy. 

Therefore,  in  demanding  of  the  high  school  graduate 
rational  and  orderly  speed,  modern  business  asks  the 
teachers  of  those  young  men  and  women : 

(1)  that  they  do  everything  possible  to  send  into 
business  life  sound  animals  who  appreciate  the  value  of 
good  health  and  who  know  how  to  conserve  it; 

(2)  that  they  give   those  pupils   such  studies   and 
exercises  and  in  such  a  way  as  to  result  in  activity  of 
mind,  thorough  coordination  between  mind  and  body, 
well  trained  senses  and  an  eagerness  to  work  and  to 
learn ; 

(3)  that  all  the  school  work  be  so  carried  on  as  to 
foster  a  spirit  of  team-play,  a  sense  of  the  value  and 
power  of  working  together  for  the  common  weal ; 

(4)  that  to  this   end   the   teacher   subordinate   the 
memorizing  of  facts  to  the  inculcating  of  promptness, 
obedience  and  loyalty ; 

(5)  that  the  studies  which  make  for  breadth  of  view 
and  variety  of  interest  be  emphasized,  and  those  which 
make  for  mere  information,  technic  and  drill  be  min- 
imized ; 

(6)  that,  to  accomplish  this,  subjects  like  arithmetic, 
bookkeeping,  grammar,  rhetoric,  etc.,  be  cut  down  to 
their  lowest  terms  and  fewest  principles,  throwing  out 
all  processes  and  exercises  which  are  obsolete,  little 
used  or  cumbersome,  putting  in  all  the  short-cuts  and 
labor-saving  devices  which  are  of  general  application; 
and  that  those  subjects,   such  as  history,   economics, 


128  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

political  and  economic  geography,  etc.,  which  make  for 
breadth  of  view;  those  exercises,  such  as  rightly-con- 
ceived manual  training,  ordered  games,  free-hand  draw- 
ing, etc.,  which  make  for  quickness  and  control  of  the 
body;  and  those  general  school  relationships  which  pro- 
mote team-play,  loyalty,  the  spirit  of  working  together 
for  a  tangible  and  desirable  end,  be  fostered,  amplified 
and  in  every  way  encouraged. 

Finally,  and  above  all,  the  high  school  should  be  the 
medium  for  leading  the  boy  and  girl  from  the  irrespon- 
sibility of  childhood  into  the  responsibility  of  men  and 
women.  With  that  end  in  view,  the  school  days  and 
weeks  should  be  on  a  business  basis,  with  long  hours 
(diversified,  of  course,  with  a  proper  alternation  of  men- 
tal and  physical  activity),  strict  accountability  on  the 
part  of  the  pupils,  and  an  organization  based,  as  nearly 
as  possible,  upon  the  best  business  and  factory  models. 
So  long  as  youth  of  seventeen  and  eighteen  do  not  take 
their  high  school  work  seriously,  they  will  not  take  busi- 
ness seriously.  And  it  is  this  lack  of  seriousness,  this 
failure  to  realize  that  success  in  business  can  come  only 
from  strict  attention  to  business,  which  lies  at  the  root 
of  most,  if  not  all,  of  the  complaints  made  by  business 
men  against  the  products  of  American  schools.  Those 
employers  find  many,  if  not  most,  of  the  boys  and  girls 
who  come  for  employment  unfitted  for  and,  if  I  may  use 
the  word,  unfittable  into,  the  complex  demands  of  mod- 
ern life.  Remembering  the  story-books,  they  think  it  is 
because  these  aspirants  cannot  write  and  cipher  and 
spell.  But  they  are  fast  finding  out  that  the  causes  of 


THE  BOY  IN  BUSINESS  129 

the  trouble,  in  most  instances,  are  weak  bodies,  or  un- 
trained senses,  or  sluggish  minds,  or  lack  of  purpose,  or 
general  immaturity,  or  ignorance  of  how  to  work  with 
others,  or  an  all-round  irresponsibility,  or  a  combination 
of  from  two  to  seven  of  all  these  human  defects.  Sec- 
ondary schools  cannot,  of  course,  make  silk  purses  out 
of  sows'  ears ;  but  they  can  make  it  their  chief  business 
to  deliver  to  the  business  world  boys  and  girls  whose 
bodies,  senses  and  minds  have  had  so  much  organized 
training  as  Heaven  has  permitted  them  to  receive;  who 
have  passed  out  of  the  state  of  "  kids  "  into  that  of  men 
and  women;  who  have  a  conception  of  and  experience 
in  cooperation  and  team-play;  who  know  what  loyalty 
means;  and  who  have  taken  school  work  so  seriously 
that  they  are  prepared  to  look  upon  the  earning  of  one's 
daily  bread  as  something  other  than  a  listless  game. 

Modern  business  demands  these  things.  Experience 
has  shown  that  a  rightly  ordered  secondary  school  sys- 
tem can  produce  them.  That  all  schools  do  not  is  the 
fault  partly  of  the  teachers,  partly  of  the  employers, 
partly  of  the  community  in  general,  mainly  of  the 
parents.  The  fathers  and  mothers,  and  the  rest  of  the 
community,  must  be  educated  to  give  moral  and  finan- 
cial support  to  this  effective  type  of  education.  But  the 
only  persons  who  can  educate  them  are  the  schoolmas- 
ters ;  and  they  must  do  it  in  a  roundabout  way  by  grad- 
ually introducing  this  rational,  real  education  into  the 
higher  and  lower  schools.  The  results  will  be  so  imme- 
diate, and  in  many  cases  so  startling,  as  to  make  even 
the  over-worked  business  man  take  notice.  And  when 


130  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

he  begins  to  realize  that  the  school  is  really  trying  to 
meet  his  needs,  when  he  begins  to  see  that  the  millions 
poured  into  the  public  schools  are  producing  efficient 
young  men  and  young  women,  he  will  cease  growling 
over  his  school  taxes,  and  will  turn  some  of  the  fortunes 
that  he  now  gives  or  bequeathes  to  colleges  into  the  lean 
treasuries  of  the  higher  and  lower  schools. 


THE   HUMAN   FACTOR   IN    BUSINESS 

WHAT  is  big  business?  One  man  in  newspaper  ar- 
ticles cleverly  designed  to  stimulate  the  lust  for  gam- 
bling, says,  with  many  wonderful  words,  that  it  is  a 
hideous  curse;  another,  nonchalantly  referring  to  a  mil- 
lion dollars  as  "  a  small  sum,"  maintains  that  it  is  an 
unadulterated  blessing;  while  those  of  us  who  are  com- 
ing in  contact  with  it  every  day,  find  it  to  be  just  a 
normal  manifestation  of  the  good  and  bad  —  inextri- 
cably mingled  —  in  common  human  nature. 

But  the  unthinking  public  and  certain  lurid  news- 
papers which  cater  to  it,  will  not  come  out  of  their  pre- 
vailing state  of  hysteria  regarding  "  big  business  "  until 
they  look  at  it,  not  as  some  mysterious  legerdemain  car- 
ried on  by  supermen,  but  as  the  simple  effect  of  every 
man's  desire  to  get  the  most  money  with  the  least  work. 

From  the  standpoint  of  efficiency,  however,  as  well  as 
from  that  of  good-will,  the  principals  in  this  big  game 
ought  to  play  fair  and  to  observe  the  rules  and  regula- 
tions of  team-play.  Be  it  little  or  big,  every  business 
is  a  partnership  in  which  the  three  partners  are  the 
employers  who  steer  the  game,  the  employees  who  do 
the  work  and  the  public  which  pays  in  its  good  money 
at  the  gate;  and  the  reason  why  we  are  usually  in  such 
turmoils  of  investigation  and  crimination  and  recrim- 


132  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

ination  is  because  some  of  the  partners  are  convinced, 
with  good  show  of  reason,  that  they  are  not  getting  a 
square  deal. 

Under  the  old  free-competitive  system  among  small 
businesses,  the  public,  as  a  consumer,  did  get,  under  nor- 
mal conditions,  a  square  deal  and  the  cost  of  living  was 
low.  But  that  same  public,  as  a  producer  under  com- 
petition, had  a  hard  struggle  to  make  both  ends  meet; 
and,  as  an  employee,  was  forced  to  accept  an  unreason- 
ably low  wage.  Those  were  the  days  of  the  debt-ridden 
farmer  and  the  real  wage  slave. 

The  obvious  way  out  of  the  dilemma  of  poor  wages 
and  minus  profits  was  through  combinations  of  one  sort 
or  another :  pools,  gentlemen's  agreements,  trusts,  etc. ; 
but  in  order  to  give  these  combinations  a  good  start  it 
was  necessary  to  shut  out  free  competition  from  abroad. 
Hence  the  protective  tariff,  with  its  much  advertised 
solicitude  for  American  labor  and  with,  incidentally,  its 
temptations  to  extravagant  management.  Behind  this 
safe  barrier,  big  business  grew  with  such  whirlwind 
speed  that  to-day  we  think  and  talk  in  millions. 

But,  while  business  combination  has  produced  such 
fortunes — real  and  paper  —  as  were  before  undreamed 
of ;  while  it  has  made  us  a  world  power  politically ;  while 
it  has  undoubtedly  greatly  raised  the  general  level  of 
prosperity;  it  has  not  brought  with  it  that  increased 
efficiency  which  its  beneficiaries  so  loudly  promised ;  and 
it  has  done  little  towards  making  this  country  that 
leader  in  the  markets  of  the  world  which  our  natural 
advantages  should  long  since  have  brought  about. 


HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  BUSINESS  133 

Business  combination  does  insure,  without  question, 
marked  economies  through  the  use  of  huge  capital,  the 
elimination  of  middlemen  and  the  prevention  of  need- 
less duplications.  Not  only  these  advantages,  however, 
but  also  those  due  to  the  increasing  application  of 
science  to  agriculture,  commerce,  transportation  and 
manufactures,  have  been  more  than  offset  by  the  extrav- 
agant promoting,  syndicating  and  stock-watering  bur- 
dens which  have  been  foisted  upon  almost  all  such 
combinations  by  those  who  brought  them  about.  These 
were  long  concealed  from  the  general  public,  however, 
through  the  abundance  of  those  natural  resources  which 
formed  the  basis  of  most  of  these  combinations,  through 
the  rapid  growth  of  home  markets,  through  the  fact  that 
wages  could  be  kept  down  by  the  inflowings  from  the 
enormous  reservoirs  of  cheap  foreign  labor,  and  through 
the  sudden  blossoming  of  extravagance  which  made  the 
American  public  indifferent  to  the  rapid  rise  in  the  cost 
of  living,  until  that  rise  had  reached  the  startling  figures 
which  confront  us  to-day. 

That  increased  cost  is  due,  of  course,  to  many  other 
things  besides  the  trusts;  but  someone  must  pay  the 
huge  and  wholly  unnecessary  expense  of  promotions, 
manipulations  and  general  watering;  and  that  some- 
body, age-long  experience  has  shown,  is  the  ultimate 
consumer. 

But  that  patient  elephant  has  turned ;  and  the  burden 
of  costs  cannot  much  longer  be  placed  upon  the  public's 
ample  and  well-seasoned  back.  Therefore  business  — 
big  and  little,  for  the  little  men  have  to  follow  the  big  — 


134  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

realizes  at  last  that  it  is  "  up  against "  the  problem  of  a 
drastic  cutting  of  costs. 

Under  such  a  necessity,  the  first  refuge  is,  of  course, 
to  reduce  wages;  but  there  business  finds  itself  con- 
fronted with,  on  the  one  hand,  a  fairly  well-organized 
body  of  labor  which,  far  from  submitting  to  a  reduction, 
is  demanding  an  increase  with  which  to  meet  the  mount- 
ing cost  of  living.  It  finds  itself  confronted,  on  the 
other  hand,  with  a  Frankenstein  which  it  has  itself 
evoked :  organizations  such  as  the  I.  W.  W.,  with  men- 
acing ranks  recruited  from  the  cheap  labor  which  big 
business  has  been  so  industriously  bringing  in  without 
making  proper  provision  for  its  training  for  American 
citizenship.  So  that  way  out  is  barred. 

The  easy  alternatives,  either  of  putting  the  burden  of 
extra  cost  due  to  inefficiency  (or  worse)  upon  the  pub- 
lic or  of  taking  it  out  of  the  employee,  being  thus  cut  off, 
the  managers  of  big  business  have  been  forced  to  look 
within  their  own  domains  and  to  see  if  costs  cannot  be 
reduced  through  what  is  vaguely  called  scientific  man- 
agement. And,  with  the  help  of  eager  specialists,  what 
a  host  of  panaceas  have  we  successively  discovered ! 

First :  scientific  accounting  which,  it  is  true,  revealed 
many  leaks,  but  which,  in  itself,  is  expensive.  Next: 
cost  accounting,  which  did  much  to  shake  our  former 
self-satisfaction,  but  which  touches  only  the  fringe  of 
the  problems  of  reduction.  Next :  development  of  piece 
and  bonus  systems,  stop-watch  studies,  and  a  whole 
academy  of  Taylor  doctors,  Emerson  surgeons  and  other 
eminent  specialists  sitting  at  the  bedsides  of  our  sick 


HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  BUSINESS  135 

businesses  for  months,  making  infinitesimal  diagnoses 
and  prescribing,  sometimes  a  cure,  and  sometimes  rem- 
edies worse  than  the  disease. 

Nevertheless,  the  whole  efficiency  propaganda  has 
been  infinitely  wholesome,  for  it  has  waked  business  men 
up  and  has  proved,  what  some  have  long  suspected, 
that  the  so  called  Captains  of  Industry  are  not,  after  all, 
to  be  regarded  as  great  business  executives,  but  merely 
as  colossal  manipulators  of  established  enterprises. 

They  are  not,  however,  to  be  blamed.  After  giving 
the  matter  a  fair  trial,  we  might  as  well  acknowledge 
that  it  is  not  humanly  possible  for  any  single  man  to 
administer  efficiently  one  of  the  huge  business  or  public- 
service  aggregations  of  to-day.  The  small  competitive 
business  proved  inefficient  because  it  could  not  command 
funds  big  enough  to  run  it  economically.  The  large 
combination  is  proving  even  more  inefficient  because  it 
cannot  find  men  big  enough  to  run  it  economically,  or 
even  honestly.  For  not  Argus  himself  could  keep  an 
eye  on  every  leak  when  there  is  a  constant  inpouring  and 
outpouring  of  tens  of  millions  of  comparatively  "  easy 
money."  And  big  business  has  so  many  things  to  look 
out  for  that  it  fails  to  see  what  little  business  does  gen- 
erally perceive:  that  every  enterprise,  large  or  small, 
has  three  equal  and  always  to  be  remembered  partners, 
(1)  the  employer,  who  should  do  honest  financing,  (2) 
the  employee,  who  should  do  honest  work  and  (3)  the 
purchasing  public,  which  objects  to  paying  high  prices 
for  shoddy  or  for  watered  goods. 

This  means  that  real  business  efficiency  is  only  to  a 


136  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

minor  degree  a  question  of  raw  materials  or  machines 
or  time-clocks  or  newspaper  advertising;  it  is  a  question 
of  sound,  well-balanced  human  relationships,  of  men 
and  women  working  together  loyally,  heartily  and  hon- 
estly for  the  good  of  the  business  and,  through  it,  of 
themselves.  And  every  such  business,  or  the  small  fed- 
erated units  into  which  every  big  business  ought  to  be 
divided,  must  be  so  compact  that  those  human  relations 
may  be  kept  close  and  vital. 

In  other  words,  having  tried  free  competition  and 
found  it  wasteful,  having  tried  unrestrained  combina- 
tion and  found  it  even  more  extravagant,  we  are  driven 
by  the  logic  of  circumstances  to  try  what  we  long  ago 
found  was  the  only  sound  road  towards  political  and 
social  efficiency,  namely,  cooperation:  within  the  busi- 
ness itself  and  between  that  business  and  the  public 
which  it  serves. 

So  long  as  the  employer  studies  only  his  machines  and 
office  methods,  leaving  out  of  consideration  the  human 
forces  which  enter  into  his  business  (those  forces  being 
the  managers,  the  foremen,  the  workmen,  the  sellers  and 
buyers  and  the  general  public  good-will)  he  will  be  sav- 
ing at  the  spigot  and  wasting  at  the  bung.  So  long  as 
the  employee  seeks  only  to  force  the  highest  wage  for 
the  least  return  in  work,  forgetting  that  he  is  the  part- 
ner with  most  at  stake  and  that  the  cost  of  every  wasted 
hour  or  bad  job  comes  out  of  his  and  his  fellow  work- 
men's pockets,  he  is  doing  more  than  all  the  "grinding 
monopolists  "  put  together  to  depress  the  real  wage-scale. 
So  long  as  the  public,  through  harassing  laws,  sensa- 


HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  BUSINESS  137 

tional  charges,  a  foolish  encouragement  of  fake  adver- 
tising and  shoddy  buying,  and  the  election  of  fools  or 
knaves  to  office,  puts  all  sorts  of  needless  burdens  upon 
business,  it  is  doing  all  that  it  can  to  keep  the  cost  of 
living  on  the  upward  climb. 

Efficient  business  management,  then,  means  honesty, 
reasonableness,  fairmindedness  and  "gumption"  in 
handling  and  in  dealing  with  men.  The  manager  who 
assumes  large  responsibilities  in  business  must  know 
how  to  choose  assistant  managers,  foremen  and  other 
lieutenants  so  that  they  will  do  team  work  as  well-bal- 
anced as  that  of  the  finest  foot-ball  eleven;  must  know 
how  to  handle  workmen  so  as  to  get  from  them,  not 
task  work,  but  loyal  service  of  the  highest  possible 
effectiveness;  must  know  how  to  deal  with  the  public 
so  as  to  get  its  confidence  and  to  make  it  appreciate  that 
the  aim  of  that  particular  business  is  so  to  eliminate 
wastes  and  so  to  promote  efficiency  as  to  save  the  public 
every  needless  cent  of  cost. 

The  greatest  source  of  inefficiency  in  most  large  or 
small  businesses  to-day  is  to  be  found  in  the  manage- 
ment; and  the  best  service  that  high  schools,  colleges 
and  technical  schools  can  render  to  the  common  weal 
is  to  train  young  men  and  women  who  shall  be  competent 
to  handle  commercial  and  industrial  enterprises  in  a 
scientific  and  statesmanlike  way. 

The  business  men  having  large  responsibilities  to-day 
may  be  roughly  divided  into  four  classes :  ( 1 )  the  grand- 
sons of  their  grandfathers,  who  have  usually  inherited 
all  the  "  old  man's  "  weak  points  and  few  of  his  good 


138  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

ones,  and  who  wholly  lack  his  experience  in  the  school 
of  hard  knocks; 

(2)  the  men  who  have  worked  up  from  the  bottom 
and  who,  with  an  intimate  knowledge  of  every  detail  of 
the  business,  are  usually  lacking  in  social  experience  and 
breadth  of  view; 

(3)  the  men  who,  in  the  hurly-burly  of  business  poli- 
tics, have  been  pitchforked  into  high  office  and  who  are 
kept  busy  spreading  out  the  few  things  they  do  know  in 
such  fashion  as  to  cover  up  the  many  that  they  do  not ; 
and 

(4)  the  men  who  regard  business  as  a  real  profession 
and  who  have  made  a  study  of  every  fact  and  feature 
bearing  upon  the  efficient  conduct  of  their  particular 
task. 

Needless  to  say,  the  type  of  man  for  which  there  is 
to-day  everywhere  a  crying  need  is  the  last;  and  in  the 
case  of  a  big  business  involving  large  responsibilities, 
this  is  the  way  to  create  him.  Begin  far  down  in  the 
lower  schools  to  develop  the  boy's  initiative,  gump- 
tion and  knowledge  of  human  nature  by  encourag- 
ing him  to  work  out  things  for  himself,  to  do  things, 
build  things  and  carry  out  schemes  with  the  rest  of  the 
"  gang  "  in  the  same  spirit  in  which  he  captains  the 
baseball  team.  Impress  him  early  with  the  fact  that  he 
will  be  compelled  to  earn  his  living  and  that  to  be  ef- 
ficient in  doing  it  is  one  of  the  finest  goals  in  life. 

When  he  gets  to  the  high  school,  don't  waste  his  time 
cramming  him  for  college  examinations.  Find  a  college 
that  is  sensible  enough  to  take  the  school's  word  for  his 


HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  BUSINESS  13$ 

proficiency.  But  in  that  high  school  try  to  get  the 
cooperation  of  the  manufacturers,  the  merchants  and 
the  farmers  so  that  the  boy  may  spend  a  considerable 
part  of  his  time  in  real,  paid-for  work,  learning  how  to 
apply  his  books  to  business  and  finding  out  what  kind 
of  help  business  needs  from  the  books  and  other  school 
paraphernalia.  All  this  means  sound,  genuine  indus- 
trial training  from  top  to  bottom  of  the  schools,  as  well 
as  a  new  spirit  and  attitude  towards,  and  in,  education. 
In  that  high  school,  moreover,  give  the  boy  even  more 
opportunity  than  he  had  in  the  lower  schools,  to  rub  up 
against  other  boys,  to  get  experience  of  bossing  and 
being  bossed,  of  planning  and  organizing,  of  buying  and 
selling  and  of  getting  "  sold." 

In  college,  help  the  youth  to  choose  a  well-rounded 
course  that  shall,  in  the  first  place,  bring  him  in  contact 
with  real  men,  —  not  with  "greasy  grinds"  grown  into 
cub  instructors,  —  and  that  shall,  in  the  second  place, 
give  him,  through  history,  economics,  sociology,  applied 
science  and  studies  of  that  type,  familiarity  with  and 
knowledge  of  men  and  of  man's  development,  of  the 
principles  of  organization,  order  and  true  efficiency. 
Pitch  him  early,  too,  into  politics,  and  teach  him  that 
public  service  is  not  merely  his  duty  but  his  opportunity. 

In  his  summer  vacations,  and  possibly  in  a  year  be- 
tween high  school  and  college,  in  college  or  right  after 
graduation,  let  him  see  just  as  much  of  his  own  country 
and  of  other  countries  as  can  possibly  be  managed.  If 
he  knocks  up  against  the  world  in  the  right  way,  by 
roughing  it,  tramping,  and  living  with  the  people,  he 


1 40  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

can  do  it  without  much  expense,  and  the  problem  of 
making  a  little  money  go  a  long  way  will  do  him  untold 
good. 

Finally,  let  him  start  in  business  at  the  very  bottom, 
doing  real,  hard,  continuous  work  in  every  department, 
rubbing  up  against  the  workmen  long  enough  to  get 
their  point  of  view,  and  rubbing  up  against  the  public, 
through  the  selling  end,  until  he  appreciates  their  coop- 
erative possibilities. 

Above  all,  and  from  the  very  beginning,  impress  in 
every  possible  way  upon  that  boy  and  youth  the  fact  that 
if  he  is  to  succeed  as  the  executive  of  a  great  business, 
he  must  know  men,  be  able  to  work  with  men  and  to 
make  them  work  with  him.  Impress  him  also  with  the 
fact  that  if  he  is  to  get  the  highest  efficiency  out  of  his 
enterprise,  it  will  be  through  the  intelligent  conservation 
and  the  wise  and  just  exploitation,  through  cooperation, 
of  all  the  human  factors  concerned. 

A  man  so  trained  will  have  studied  business  as  a  real 
profession;  and  when  he  gets  to  the  top,  he  will  know 
what  efficiency  means,  and  will  have  that  understanding 
of  men  and  that  hold  upon  men  which  will  enable  him 
to  extend  and  to  enlarge  his  enterprise  upon  the  only 
sound  and  lasting  lines :  those  of  thorough  cooperation 
between  the  management  that  creates,  the  workman  that 
constructs  and  the  public  that  "  pays  the  freight." 


ART    IN    HUMAN    LIFE 

ONE  who  argues  for  the  development  of  art  in  the 
United  States  must  begin  by  denying  with  all  possible 
vigor  that  there  is  any  actual  distinction  between  the 
arts  called  manual  (or  useful),  and  the  arts  called  fine. 
Between  the  genuine  craftsman  and  the  genuine  artist 
there  is  no  real  line  of  cleavage,  and  consequently  there 
can  be  no  distinction  between  the  things  which  one  or 
the  other  of  them  produces.  The  painter  of  great  pic- 
tures is  but  the  culmination,  or  the  flower,  of  a  group 
of  designers  and  decorators  who,  being  artist-crafts- 
men, have  imperceptibly  gone  over  the  imaginary  line 
between  designing  and  painting,  and  in  so  doing  have 
evolved  from  out  their  group  one  or  more  genuine  paint- 
ers who,  when  they  shall  have  been  dead  long  enough, 
will  be  called  "  old  masters." 

The  sculptor,  in  the  same  way,  is  but  the  flowering  of 
the  potter,  the  wood-carver  and  the  stone-cutter,  any 
one  of  whom,  if  he  honors  and  loves  his  craft,  may  at 
any  moment  step  over  that  same  invisible  line  into  the 
noble  company  of  great  plastic  artists.  Architecture, 
no  matter  how  magnificent,  is  but  the  logical  goal  of 
honest  carpentry,  sound  masonry  and  artistic  cabinet 
making.  Even  music  must  have  behind  it  the  crafts- 
manship (exquisitely  perfected,  as  in  the  case  of  a 

141 


142  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

Stradivarius  violin)  of  the  instrument  maker,  and  is  in 
itself  the  effect  of  the  high  craftsmanship  involved  in 
the  perfect  manipulation  either  of  a  musical  instrument 
or  of  the  human  voice.  The  drama,  of  course,  loses  half 
its  value  unless  it  have  behind  it  the  stagecraft  which 
helps  to  create  the  dramatic  illusion.  Moreover,  it  is 
no  forcing  of  analogies  to  regard  the  perfect  gesture,  the 
studied  posture  —  so  perfect  that  it  seems  unstudied  — 
and  again  the  manipulation  of  the  voice,  in  acting,  as  a 
fleeting  but  no  less  real  form  of  craftsmanship. 

Literature  alone  would  seem  to  have  no  ancestry  in 
any  manual  art;  but  there  is,  nevertheless,  direct  paral- 
lelism between  the  cabinet  maker  who  designs,  propor- 
tions and  exquisitely  finishes  a  piece  of  furniture,  and 
the  writer  who,  having  a  great  thought  to  embody,  so 
shapes  his  sentences,  smoothes  his  paragraphs  and  pro- 
portions his  entire  presentation  as  to  make  that  great 
thought  a  living  force,  enduring  from  generation  to 
generation.  Shakespeare,  for  example,  greatest  of 
writers,  is  also  greatest  of  craftsmen,  his  very  faults 
being  so  manipulated  by  his  transcendent  genius  as  to 
give  added  emphasis  to  what  he  desired  to  express. 
"  Craft,"  in  perhaps  both  senses,  was  behind  the  remark- 
able "  Cross  of  Gold  "  speech  made  by  Mr.  Bryan,  a 
burst  of  studied  oratory  which  markedly  changed  the 
course  of  American  history  for  at  least  twenty-five 
years. 

It  is  of  the  utmost  significance  in  this  connection  that 
the  period  of  greatest  "  all-roundness  "  in  the  fine  arts 
is  also  the  period  of  greatest  flowering  in  craftsman- 


ART  IN  HUMAN  LIFE  143 

ship:  the  era  loosely  called  the  Renaissance,  to  which 
belong  so  much  of  the  great  painting,  sculpture,  archi- 
tecture, literature,  and  even  music  of  human  history.  A 
majority  of  the  transcendent  names  in  that  marvelous 
period  were  primarily  craftsmen;  and  it  is  difficult  to 
know  whether  to  admire  their  masterpieces  most  for 
their  embodiment  of  what  we  call  fine  art  or  of  what 
we  call  pure  craftsmanship.  The  greatest  cathedrals, 
looked  at  as  a  whole,  are  superlative  specimens  of  art ; 
viewed  point  by  point,  they  are  equally  astonishing  ex- 
amples of  craftsmanship;  and  even  one  who  knows 
nothing  of  painting  understands  that  the  technique  of 
the  old  masters  is  quite  as  extraordinary  as  their  powers 
of  emotional  expression.  No  argument  is  needed,  of 
course,  to  prove  that  in  many  instances  besides  that  of 
Shakespeare  the  technique  of  the  great  Renaissance 
writers  is  equal,  and  in  some  cases  superior,  to  the  con- 
tent of  their  writings.  And  were  such  men  as  Ben- 
venuto  Cellini  and  Peter  Visscher  merely  craftsmen,  or 
were  they  superlatively  artists,  too  ? 

While  the  Renaissance  is  doubtless  the  most  conspic- 
uous proof  of  the  thesis,  there  are  many  other  examples 
in  history  ready  to  sustain  the  argument  that  great 
leaders  in  the  fine  arts  do  not  appear  in  any  number 
unless  there  is  a  widespread  facility  in,  and  a  popular 
appreciation  of,  the  manual  arts.  Consequently,  if  we 
are  ever  to  be  —  what  we  now  are  not  —  a  nation  pro- 
ducing painters,  sculptors,  architects,  dramatists,  mu- 
sicians and  writers  of  undoubted  first  rank,  we  must 
begin  by  creating  a  general  understanding  among  every- 


144  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

day  people  of  what  true  craftsmanship  means,  and  by 
rearing  up,  also,  numerous  accomplished  and  devoted 
craftsmen,  capable  both  of  seeing  visions  and  of  making 
those  visions  real.  We  must  have,  in  other  words,  not 
a  few  scattered  individuals,  but  large  groups  of  men  and 
women,  a  part  of  whom  know  how  to  manipulate,  with 
supreme  artistry,  wood  and  stone  and  metal,  and  others 
of  whom  know  how  to  mobilize  their  bodies,  hands  and 
voices  —  and  their  minds  as  well  —  with  that  almost 
superhuman  skill  possessed  by  the  consummate  actor, 
musician,  orator,  dramatist  or  poet. 

Probably  a  vast  majority  of  Americans  would  argue 
that  the  need  for  creating  craftsmen  —  or,  rather,  art- 
ists—  of  this  superlative  type  is  open  to  much  argu- 
ment. In  a  country  like  ours,  they  will  contend,  the 
aiming  to  develop  supreme  masters  in  the  fine  arts 
is  a  wasteful  use  of  national  energy.  They  will  main- 
tain that,  situated  as  we  are,  we  should  limit  our  endeav- 
ors practically  to  the  field  of  mechanical  skill,  a  field  in 
which  we  are  already  near  the  front.  In  many  direc- 
tions we  are  making  machines  fully  equal  to  those  of 
any  other  nation,  and  in  possibly  a  majority  of  those 
directions  we  are  making  machines  the  finish  and  per- 
fection of  which  no  other  nation  can  approach.  "  Isn't 
it  glory  enough,"  they  will  say,  "  for  the  United  States 
to  make  the  best  motors  and  watches  and  sewing- 
machines  and  typewriters,  and  similar  practical  objects, 
without  trying  to  create  those  rare,  artistic  things  which, 
after  all,  have  very  little  immediate,  intrinsic  value  ?  " 
"  What  good,"  they  will  continue,  "  are  pieces  of  super- 


ART  IN  HUMAN  LIFE  145 

lative  craftsmanship  that  only  connoisseurs  understand ; 
and,  as  to  pictures  and  statues,  what  use  are  they  except 
for  critics  to  wrangle  over  ?  " 

"  Moreover,"  the  hard-headed  American  will  say, 
"  Are  not  these  well-nigh  perfect  machines  products  of 
art  in  themselves  ?  And  isn't  it  better  for  us  to  concen- 
trate our  energies  on  creating  these  pieces  of  perfection 
worth  so  much,  cash  down,  rather  than  to  strive  after 
the  uncertain,  and  always  tardy,  laurels  awarded  the 
fine  arts?  " 

This  last  contention  of  theirs  is  easily  answered,  of 
course,  by  pointing  out  that  where  and  when  a  machine 
or  a  bridge  or  a  sky-scraper  is  indeed  a  work  of  art,  it 
is  primarily  because  of  its  design;  and  that  the  designer 
is  not  a  mechanic,  but  is  an  expert  craftsman  and,  in 
most  cases,  a  true  artist.  Consequently,  even  in  this 
comparatively  narrow  field  of  development,  the  United 
States  cannot  maintain  its  supremacy  unless  it  is  all  the 
time  creating  great  designers;  and  such  cannot  be  cre- 
ated except  as  part  of  a  well-conceived  scheme  for  devel- 
oping, through  training  in  perfect  craftsmanship,  what 
may  properly  be  called  a  general  atmosphere  of  art. 

Therefore,  even  should  the  United  States  deliberately 
determine  —  which  of  course  it  cannot  do  —  to  limit 
itself  to  the  narrow  field  of  expert  machine,  bridge  and 
structure  building,  it  would  still  be  obliged  to  train  up 
designers  who  must  be  artists,  and  that  can  be  done  only 
through  developing  a  widespread  system  of  sound  craft 
training.  But,  of  course,  a  country  with  our  possibil- 
ities would  not  for  a  moment  be  satisfied  to  limit  itself  in 


146  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

this  way.  Everything  seems  to  be  conspiring  to  push 
us  into  world  leadership,  and  it  would  be  both  cowardly 
and  foolish  not  to  fit  ourselves  for  the  highest  leadership 
of  all,  for  acknowledged  supremacy,  that  is,  in  all  the 
arts  called  fine.  We  cannot  think  of  confining  ourselves 
to  the  mere  raising  of  foodstuffs  on  a  colossal  scale,  to 
the  mere  production  of  vast  quantities  of  raw  material 
such  as  cotton,  pig-iron,  etc.,  or  to  the  mere  manufac- 
ture by  tens  of  millions  of  things  that  are  virtually  raw 
material,  such  as  structural  steel,  coarse  cotton  goods, 
and  so  on.  Neither  can  we  be  satisfied  to  be  the  great 
machine  builders  of  the  world,  or  even  to  become  the 
centre  of  the  world's  finance.  We  cannot  stop  short  of 
producing,  in  time,  the  greatest  architects,  painters, 
sculptors,  musicians,  writers,  poets,  of  all  history;  for 
only  through  making  such  intellectual  and  spiritual  con- 
tributions to  civilization  can  any  nation  hope  to  endure. 
Notwithstanding  conspicuous  exceptions,  it  is  an 
established  fact  that  these  supreme  flowers  of  civiliza- 
tion are  not  sporadic  growths.  They  appear  in  such 
numbers  and  of  such  quality  as  to  give  the  stamp  of 
genius  to  a  whole  nation  only  when  and  where  the  intel- 
lectual, aesthetic  and  spiritual  soil  has  been  long  and 
carefully  prepared.  Consequently,  if  we  are  to  become 
a  truly  great  nation,  we  must  put  into  concrete  shape 
our  present  vague  aspirations,  we  must  definitely  seek 
to  be  a  great  exemplar  of  the  fine  arts  and  of  literature, 
and  we  must  lead,  therefore,  our  system  of  general  edu- 
cation into  channels  which  will  so  aesthetically  water  and 
so  spiritually  fertilize  the  great  mass  of  the  people  that 


ART  IN  HUMAN  LIFE  147 

within  two  or  three  or  four  generations  there  will  spring 
out  from  this  widely  and  wisely  enriched  soil  those  great 
painters,  sculptors,  musicians,  actors,  poets  and  writers 
through  whom  alone  undying  fame  can  come. 

We  have  in  posse  all  the  constituent  elements  of  such 
a  rich,  artistic  soil,  so  that,  as  in  the  case  of  a  western 
desert,  which  produces  nothing  until  the  stored-up 
waters  of  the  mountains  are  brought  to  it,  and  then 
shows  a  fecundity  truly  amazing,  we  have  but  to  bring 
to  our  somewhat  arid  materialism  the  waters  of  a  sound 
artistic  spirit  and  a  wise  artistic  education.  We  have 
not  only  widespread  well-being,  a  great  variety  of  cli- 
mate and  of  natural  scenery ;  we  have  not  only  freedom 
of  thought  and  limitless  opportunity  for  individual 
initiative;  but  we  have  also  a  rich  mingling  of  races 
transplanted  here  from  all  quarters  of  the  world  and, 
because  of  that  transplanting,  growing  with  new  life 
and  vigor. 

It  may  seem  astonishing  that  with  nearly  a  cen- 
tury and  a  half  of  such  special  advantages,  we  have 
not  yet  produced  in  any  large  measure  those  geniuses 
(except  inventors)  who  are  the  real  evidences  of  a 
nation's  greatness.  But  any  doubt  of  our  artistic 
future,  because  of  such  barrenness  hitherto,  is  wholly 
unwarranted.  These  hundred  years  and  more  had  to 
be  devoted  to  exploring  and  taming  a  savage  territory, 
to  putting  it  at  the  service  of  the  world,  and  to  fitting 
it  to  be  the  dwelling  place  of  a  huge,  cosmopolitan 
people.  The  time  has  now  arrived,  however,  when  that 
work  is  so  far  complete  that  the  best  energies  of  the 


148  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

nation  should  be  turned  towards  producing,  not  the 
ephemeral  things  of  material  welfare,  but  the  enduring 
things  of  genuine  civilization. 

This  being  the  case,  and  it  having  been  shown  that 
the  fine  arts  must  be  a  direct  outgrowth  from  the  manual 
arts,  it  follows  as  a  matter  of  course  that  from  this 
standpoint  of  true  national  greatness,  if  from  no  other, 
American  education  should  put  ever  stronger  emphasis 
upon  a  sound  training  in,  and  a  thorough  practice  of, 
sound  craftsmanship. 

Thus  far  the  extraordinary  material  wealth  of  this 
country  has  come  largely  from  the  production  and  ex- 
portation of  what,  broadly  speaking,  is  little  better  than 
raw  material.  Our  rich  soils  have  produced  abundant 
foodstuffs,  with  which  we  have  kept  our  own  population 
at  a  high  standard  of  efficiency  and  have  fed  other 
nations  at  profits  bringing  us  great  wealth.  Moreover, 
our  vast  and  varied  acres,  our  forests,  mines  and  water 
powers,  have  enabled  us  not  only  to  develop  rapidly  our 
own  manufacturing,  but  also  to  supply  the  world  with 
such  indispensable  raw  and  semi-manufactured  mate- 
rials as  cotton,  coal,  pig-iron,  pig-lead,  structural  steel 
and  lumber.  But  this  second  use  of  our  natural  re- 
sources has  been  inconceivably  wasteful,  for  it  has  in 
many  directions  robbed  the  country  of  stored  resources 
which  can  never  be  made  good,  and  has  secured  in 
return  for  those  precious  possessions  little  more  than 
the  bare  cost  of  getting  them  out  of  the  ground  and  of 
carrying  them  outside  the  country.  We  have  been  not 
much  wiser  than  those  classic  optimists  who  were  going 


ART  IN  HUMAN  LIFE  149 

to  support  themselves  in  affluence  by  taking  in  each 
other's  washing-.  Had  we  been  far-seeing  enough  not 
only  to  conserve,  —  instead  of  prodigally  to  waste  — 
our  natural  resources,  but  also  to  convert  them,  by  thor- 
oughly skilled  labor,  into  articles  of  high  intrinsic  value 
and  of  enduring  beauty,  we  would  not  now  be  facing 
probable  exhaustion  of  many  of  these  natural  bounties. 
Moreover,  by  using  but  a  fraction  of  this  raw  material 
which  we  have  so  wickedly  squandered,  we  would  have 
brought  into  our  country  a  thousand  times  as  much  re- 
turn in  actual  money  value,  and  ten  thousand  times  as 
much -in  commercial  and  national  prestige.  The  prob- 
lem of  conservation  involves  not  merely  the  renouncing 
of  our  stupid  destruction  of  forests,  robbing  of  mines 
and  exhaustion  of  soils,  it  involves  also  a  study  of  the 
wisest  use,  from  every  point  of  view,  to  which  a  virile 
and  intelligent  population  like  ours  should  put  the  raw 
material  with  which,  as  a  nation,  we  are  so  lavishly 
endowed. 

Take  Massachusetts,  for  example.  It  is  conceivable 
that,  by  drastic  measures,  this  state  might  have  been 
kept  purely  agricultural.  The  result  would  have  been 
that,  producing  hardly  enough  to  keep  its  own  inhabit- 
ants alive  and  having  nothing  to  export  to  other  states 
or  nations,  the  Commonwealth  would  have  accumulated 
no  capital  and  its  citizens  would  have  simply  existed, 
like  savages,  from  hand  to  mouth.  Or  if,  seeing  the 
need  of  something  beyond  mere  daily  bread  for  them- 
selves, its  people  had  deliberately  sold  such  few  natural 
resources  as  they  had :  their  trees,  their  building  stones, 


150  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

etc.,  they  would  long  ago  have  parted  with  these  things 
and  would  have  reached  a  state  of  squalid  bankruptcy. 
The  right  policy,  however,  was  that  which  New  England 
has  pursued:  the  policy  of  giving  up  the  cruder  forms 
of  agriculture,  which  require  vast  spaces  and  a  depend- 
able climate,  of  placing  emphasis  more  and  more  on 
intensive  farming  and  the  raising  of  what  may  be  called 
luxuries,  wherein  the  element  of  brains  is  of  much  more 
importance  than  that  of  soil  and  climate,  and  of  putting 
their  main  energies  into  the  converting  of  raw  material, 
raised  elsewhere,  into  manufactures  requiring  those 
things  which  they  preeminently  possess,  namely,  a  cease- 
less stream  of  sturdy  laborers,  good  water  powers, 
Yankee  "  gumption,"  brains,  a  high  level  of  general 
education,  wide  and  accessible  markets  and  abundant 
capital. 

Whether  as  a  fundamental  error,  or  whether  as  a  neces- 
sary step  in  evolution,  Massachusetts  has  thus  far  devel- 
oped, as  its  principal  manufactures,  those  things  in 
which  the  cost  of  raw  material  and  the  cost  of  brains 
stand  more  or  less  equal  in  the  finished  result.  For 
example,  the  manufacture  of  cotton  and  woolen  goods, 
of  shoes  and  of  other  like  staples,  involves  bringing  to 
New  England,  often  from  long  distances,  raw  material 
in  itself  expensive,  the  transportation  of  which  adds 
greatly  to  first  cost,  and  the  conversion  of  which  into 
finished  material  requires  only  a  minimum  of  brains  on 
the  part  of  the  workers,  the  real  intellect  having  been 
put,  of  course,  into  the  inventing  and  developing  of 
ingenious  machines.  Had  Massachusetts,  instead  of 


ART  IN  HUMAN  LIFE  151 

this,  put  her  energies  more  fully  into  such  intricate 
manufactures  as  that  of  watches,  automobiles,  fine  tools, 
optical  instruments,  sheer  muslins,  etc.,  where  the  cost 
of  the  raw  material  as  compared  with  the  price  of  the 
finished  product  is  almost  infinitesimal,  and  where  the 
final  value  is  given  almost  wholly  by  the  skill  and  brains 
of  the  workmen,  the  State  would  to-day,  probably,  be 
far  richer  than  it  is,  and  it  certainly  would  not  be  in  a 
panic  at  seeing  so  many  of  its  industries  taking  flight  to 
other  regions  in  order  to  get  close  to  the  sources  of 
their  raw  material. 

Whether  or  not  New  England  has  erred  in  the  past, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  its  course  in  the  future. 
The  day  of  wide  margins  of  profit  has  forever  gone, 
and  the  manufacturer  can  in  these  times  succeed  only 
by  cutting  out  every  avoidable  expense  —  such  as  that 
of  transportation  of  bulky  goods  from  a  distance  —  and 
by  utilizing  to  the  fullest  extent  every  former  waste 
and  by-product.  New  England,  remote  from  Western 
markets  and  from  raw  materials,  has,  however,  advan- 
tages of  which  she  should  make  the  utmost: 
nearness  to  European  ports,  giving  wide  foreign  mar- 
kets; extraordinary  harbors,  facilitating  commerce  and 
the  building  of  ships;  well  distributed  water  powers, 
which,  through  modern  electrical  transmission,  can.be 
advantageously  harnessed ;  a  population  trained  to  man- 
ufacturing for  generations;  and  an  educational  prestige 
which  should  enable  her  to  keep  always  ahead  in  the 
work  of  preparing  for  intensive,  intelligent,  artistic  man- 
ufacturing, her  native  and  her  acquired  peoples. 


152  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

All  these  advantages,  however,  point  without  shadow 
of  question  to  ever  greater  emphasis,  in  her  manufac- 
turing, upon  the  production  of  fine  and  artistic  goods 
in  which,  on  the  one  hand,  the  handicap  of  distance  from 
raw  materials  is  minimized,  in  which,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  advantages  of  foreign  markets,  of  manufacturing 
skill  and  of  education,  count  for  their  full  value.  Con- 
sequently, whatever  may  be  argued  for  the  United 
States  as  a  whole,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that 
the  material,  to  say  nothing  of  the  moral  and  intellectual, 
future  of  New  England  depends  upon  beginning  at  once 
to  take  every  step  needed  to  make  this  section  the  Paris, 
the  Vienna,  the  Belgium,  the  Switzerland,  the  South 
Germany,  of  America,  —  the  place,  that  is,  where  one 
turns  instinctively  for  the  finest  and  most  exquisite 
things  that  human  hands  can  make. 

Granted,  for  the  sake  of  argument,  that  in  this 
matter  of  broad,  sound,  effective  craft  training  only  a 
very  limited  number  of  the  community  can  ever  be  ap- 
pealed to  on  the  philosophical  basis  that  America  should 
create  a  popular  soil,  rich  in  its  possibilities  for  produc- 
ing, two  or  three  generations  hence,  great  masters  in  all 
the  fine  arts.  Nevertheless,  practically  the  whole  people 
of  New  England  would  respond  enthusiastically  to  a 
more  immediate  and  concrete  plea  for  developing  mar- 
kets through  extensive  and  intelligent  training. 

To  convince  that  people,  it  will  be  necessary,  first,  to 
make  them  see  that  such  skill  and  craftsmanship  as  will 
make  New  England  the  "  fine  goods  "  centre  of  the 
world,  must  necessarily  be  founded  upon  a  manual, 


ART  IN  HUMAN  LIFE  153 

craft  and  aesthetic  training  given  to  practically  all  their 
boys  and  girls ;  and,  secondly,  to  make  them  believe  that 
the  schools  themselves  are  both  ready  and  able  to  pro- 
vide such  comprehensive  training.  To  show  New  Eng- 
land these  two  things  is  primarily  the  task  of  men  and 
women  engaged  in  teaching  the  crafts;  and  it  is  super- 
fluous to  say  that  they  cannot  create  an  artistic  soil, 
they  cannot  persuade  the  general  public  even  of  their 
ability  and  willingness  so  to  do,  as  long  as  any  of  them 
is  satisfied  to  limit  manual  training  to  a  more  or  less  per- 
functory pottering  with  carpentry,  woodturning  and  the 
rudiments  of  work  in  iron. 

Most  of  what  manual  training  has  already  done  is 
useful  and  has  proved  its  value  as  a  minor  force  in  the 
general  curriculum;  but  what  is  now  involved  is  some- 
thing which  goes  far  deeper,  spreads  much  farther,  and 
has  as  its  aim  nothing  less  than  the  gradual  lifting  of  a 
population  contentedly  buried  in  a  fog  of  commonplace 
materialism  up  into  the  daylight  of  enduring  beauty, 
illuminating  art  and  true  human  and  spiritual  values. 
To  accomplish  such  a  task  as  this,  manual  training,  — 
whether  or  not  its  unhappy  name  be  changed  —  must 
be  broadened  to  include  not  simply  the  few  branches  to 
which  it  has  thus  far  been  limited,  but  also  the  training 
of  the  eye  for  painting,  the  training  of  the  hand  for 
sculpture,  the  training  of  the  voice  for  speaking  and 
singing,  the  training  of  the  body  for  rhythmic,  dramatic 
and  oratorical  expression,  and  the  training  of  the  whole 
being  for  music,  literature  and  the  other  highest  forms 
of  aesthetic  understanding  and  expression. 


154  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

Of  course  this  large  program  cannot  be  applied  to 
every  pupil,  and  of  course  it  cannot  be  carried  out 
within  the  limits  of  the  usual  school  day.  Consequently 
craftsmen  and  craftswomen  should  agitate  with  special 
zeal  for  three  things  which  those  who  have  been  given 
the  somewhat  dubious  name  of  "  social  educators  "  are 
also  working  for,  namely:  (1)  a  diversified,  flexible 
training,  adaptable  as  far  as  possible  to  the  special 
needs  of  each  individual  pupil;  (2)  organized  group 
work  in  which,  through  the  principle  of  interest  and 
cooperation,  a  large  share  of  their  education  can  be  car- 
ried on  by  the  pupils  themselves,  and  in  their  homes  as 
well  as  in  their  school;  and  (3)  a  development  of  school 
plants  along  the  general  lines  of  what  is  popularly 
known  as  the  Gary  system,  under  which  the  school 
buildings  and  grounds  shall  provide  for  every  side  of  a 
child's  activity,  under  which  the  school  program  shall 
be  so  arranged  as  to  utilize  the  entire  plant  for  at  least 
fourteen  hours  every  day  in  every  week,  and  under 
which  that  "  whole  child,"  regarding  whom  we  have  so 
long  meaninglessly  chattered,  shall  really  get  the  benefit 
of  wise,  all-round  education  during  substantially  all  his 
waking  hours. 

Let  the  individuality  of  the  child  be  understood  and 
his  right  development  looked  out  for;  let  the  forces  of 
childhood  interest  and  adolescent  interest  be  utilized  as 
friends  of  the  teaching  plan,  instead  of  fought  against 
as  enemies ;  and  let  the  school  plant  and  the  school  day 
be  made  truly  efficient  instruments  for  educating  every 
side  of  the  growing  child ;  then  there  will  be  every  incen- 


ART  IN  HUMAN  LIFE  155 

tive  and  every  opportunity  to  give  to  the  whole  youthful 
population  a  real,  effective  manual  training,  a  training 
covering,  in  accordance  with  the  child's  individual  bent 
and  capabilities,  his  hands,  his  body,  his  senses,  his  emo- 
tions, his  constructive,  critical  and  aesthetic  faculties, 
and  especially  his  mind  and  will.  Within  two  or  three 
generations  such  broad  and  effective  training  as  this  not 
only  would  produce,  unquestionably,  that  widespread 
facility  in  craftsmanship  which  is  needed  to  make  us  the 
industrial  leaders  of  the  world,  but  also  would  amaz- 
ingly enrich  that  artistic  soil  out  of  which  alone  can 
come,  and  out  of  which  always  will  come,  the  sublime 
masters  in  painting,  sculpture,  architecture,  music  and 
all  forms  of  literature,  —  masters,  that  is,  of  those 
things  in  a  nation  which,  when  all  lesser,  transitory 
deeds  and  fames  have  vanished,  still  endure. 


INDUSTRIAL  ART  IN  HUMAN  LEADERSHIP 

IN  the  seventeenth  century  the  United  States  was 
born  great;  in  the  300  years  intervening  she  has  acquired 
material  and  political  greatness;  and  now  the  oppor- 
tunity for  intellectual  and  moral  greatness  is  being 
thrust  upon  her  by  the  world  war.  She  was  born 
great  because  history  gave  to  some  of  the  best  selected 
stock  of  the  world  the  task  of  founding,  in  a  region 
insulated  from  the  turmoils  of  Europe  and  having  every 
natural  opportunity,  a  new  nation ;  she  has  become  great 
through  the  fortunate  working  out  of  those  unique  con- 
ditions; and  now  the  cataclysm  of  stupendous  war  has 
thrust  upon  her  a  new  greatness :  that  of  taking,  in  the 
forthcoming  reconstruction  of  the  world,  acknowledged 
leadership. 

So  far  as  concerns  material  things,  there  is  no  ques- 
tion of  this  new  responsibility  being  hers.  The  United 
States  is  the  one  powerful  nation  not  in  any  measure 
exhausted;  geography  made  it  practically  certain  that 
the  war  could  neither  violate  her  territory  nor  seriously 
affect  the  tenor  of  her  daily  life;  her  political  and  social 
habit  is  so  in  accord  with  the  spirit  of  the  times  that  no 
violent  readjustments  are  needed  in  either  her  govern- 
ment or  her  systems  of  education;  and  her  wealth  in 
products  and  in  money  will  almost  surely  cause  New 

156 


INDUSTRIAL  ART  IN  HUMAN  LEADERSHIP       157 

York,  rather  than  London,  to  be,  sooner  or  later,  the 
focus  of  the  world's  trade. 

The  attaining  of  such  supremacy  as  this,  an  achieve- 
ment that,  even  as  late  as  the  beginning  of  the  century, 
would  have  seemed  chimerical,  carries  with  it,  however, 
moral  responsibilities  not  only  enormous  in  themselves, 
but  big  with  the  future  of  the  world.  If  the  oppor- 
tunities placed  by  an  extraordinary  combination  of  cir- 
cumstances in  this  country's  hands  are  received  with 
boasting  and  self-satisfaction,  they  will  certainly  come 
to  naught;  if,  on  the  other  hand,  they  are  accepted 
gravely,  humbly  and  with  a  national  determination  to 
rise  to  the  unexampled  heights  presented,  they  will  make 
the  United  States  actually  and  forever  great. 

Whether  they  vanish  or  whether  they  remain  depends 
upon  ourselves  as  a  people.  If,  knowing  this  country 
to  be  incalculably  rich,  we  seek  material  domination,  we 
shall  be  powerful  only  until  some  other  country  exceeds 
ours  in  possessions.  If,  realizing  the  exhaustion  of 
those  nations  that  have  borne  the  brunt  of  the  fighting, 
we  try,  through  trade  laws  and  commercial  exactions, 
to  absorb  more  than  our  share  of  the  world's  commerce, 
we  shall  create  a  legacy  of  hate  which,  sooner  or  later, 
will  lead  to  our  destruction.  If,  drunk  with  the  wine 
of  imperial  dominion,  we  seek,  directly  or  indirectly, 
territorial  aggrandizement,  we  shall  build  up  but  another 
mushroom  empire,  bearing  within  it  as  did  Persia,  as  did 
Rome,  as  did  the  realized  world-dominion  of  Napoleon, 
and  as  does  the  unrealized  world-domination  of  the 
Kaiser,  inherent  decay.  The  only  national  supremacy 


158  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

that  does  not  carry  within  itself  the  seeds  of  self-destruc- 
tion is  that  which  comes  through  moral  leadership, 
through  the  desire  of  a  people  to  serve  not  alone  itself, 
but  all  civilization,  through  its  ambition  to  advance  not 
only  its  own  fortunes,  but  those  of  all  mankind. 

If  the  United  States  determines  to  make  democracy 
in  America  a  real  government  by  and  for  the  people, 
she  can,  in  time,  convert  the  civilized  world  to,  and 
make  it  safe  for,  democracy.  If  she  demonstrates  what 
effective  common  schooling  can  really  do  to  lift  men  out 
of  ignorance,  folly  and  evil  doing,  she  can,  by  example, 
force  genuine  popular  education  upon  all  the  great 
nations  and  upon  most  of  the  little  nations  of  the  hemi- 
spheres. If  she  uses  industry,  and  those  handmaids  of 
industry:  training,  invention  and  research,  as  a  means 
of  enriching  all  the  peoples  of  the  world;  if  she  proves 
that  wealth  is  not  an  end  in  itself,  but  is  merely  an 
essential  means  of  raising  men  out  of  ignorance  and 
degradation  into  mental  and  spiritual  freedom;  then 
she  will  get  and  will  retain  enduring  authority  in  the 
affairs  of  the  world,  then  she  will  indeed  prove  herself 
worthy  of  that  special  inheritance  which  permitted  her 
to  be  born  great,  to  become  great  and  to  have  this  final 
greatness  of  moral  leadership  thrust  into  her  willing  and 
efficient  hands. 

Paradoxical  though  it  may  sound,  this  country  has 
actually  suffered  from  the  prodigality  of  Nature.  Raw 
materials  have  been  so  abundant,  riches  have  come  with 
such  ease,  it  has  been  so  much  less  trouble  to  exploit  the 
unworked  fruits  of  the  earth  than  to  convert  them  into 


INDUSTRIAL  ART  IN  HUMAN  LEADERSHIP       159 

finished  things,  that  we  have  remained,  far  longer  than 
was  necessary,  crude  industrially,  crude  artistically, 
crude  intellectually.  The  first  raw  period  of  our 
national  life,  a  period  that  was  already  fast  coming 
to  an  end,  has  been  closed  abruptly  and  forever  by  the 
war.  If,  on  the  industrial  side,  we  are  now  to  assume 
and  to  retain  leadership,  our  manufactures  must 
be  made  truly  competitive,  our  industrial  art  must 
be  brought  up  to  the  European  level,  our  business  minds 
must  be  taught  to  think  and  to  plan  in  international 
terms.  Only  so  much  of  our  raw  materials  must  be 
sent  abroad  as  we  cannot  advantageously  convert  into 
finished  goods  ourselves;  those  goods  must  meet  much 
higher  standards  both  of  use  and  of  art  than  we  have, 
in  most  cases,  yet  set  for  ourselves;  and  from  this  time 
forth  we  must  appreciate  that  industry  and  commerce 
are  not  haphazard  things  to  be  developed  by  luck  and 
rule  of  thumb,  but  are  complex  professions  upon  the 
building  up  of  which  all  the  resources  of  intellect,  of 
science,  of  art  and,  no  less,  of  ethics,  must  be  brought 
unceasingly  to  bear. 

It  is  a  truism  that  any  article  manufactured  by  the 
hand  of  man  must  have,  if  it  is  to  be  considered  at  all, 
some  use  for  someone.  But  to  most  persons  it  has  not 
yet  become  clear  that  in  addition  to,  or  as  a  part  of,  the 
use  value  there  must  be  beauty  value.  Few,  if  any, 
things  in  the  world  serve,  however,  a  real  use  unless 
they  subserve,  also,  the  universal  craving  of  mankind 
for  beauty.  The  satisfaction  which  comes  through  fine- 
ness of  line,  perfection  of  color,  harmony  of  all  the  com- 


i6o  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

ponent  parts  of  an  object,  whether  that  object  be  from 
nature  or  from  man,  is  a  fact  so  patent  as  to  need  no 
demonstration.  Though  the  artist's  ideas  of  beauty 
and  those  of  the  savage  may  differ  very  widely  indeed, 
they  have  this  in  common :  that  the  use  of  a  thing  and  the 
beauty  of  a  thing  are  closely  intermingled,  in  the  minds 
:>f  both  of  them,  in  substantially  every  phase  of  their 
ividely  divergent  experience  of  life. 

The  general  level  of  aesthetics  in  the  United  States, 
while  far  above  that  of  the  savage,  is  nevertheless  still 
that  of  the  pioneer.  Most  of  us  have  had  little  time 
and  less  inclination  to  develop  that  side  of  our  nature, 
to  know  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  beauty  and,  much 
less,  to  analyze  and  understand  those  feelings  which 
make  us  prefer,  as  the  case  may  be,  rag-time  to  Debussy, 
wax  flowers  to  the  Winged  Victory.  The  important 
fact,  however,  is  that  we  do  prefer  something,  that  we 
have,  untutored  though  it  be,  the  aesthetic  longing  and 
at  least  the  foundations  of  aesthetic  taste.  But  an  even 
more  important  fact,  at  the  present  juncture,  is  that  the 
peoples  of  Europe,  of  the  Near  and  the  Far  East  and, 
to  a  certain  extent,  of  South  America,  have  built  up, 
on  the  side  of  beauty,  standards  in  many  cases  far  above 
ours,  standards  which,  if  we  are  successfully  to  enter 
the  world  markets,  we  must  hasten  also  to  attain. 

As  we  come  forward,  after  the  Peace,  as  chief  pur- 
veyors to  the  world's  needs,  it  will  be  found,  of  course, 
that  those  demands  are,  at  first  and  mainly,  for  just  those 
crude  products  which,  up  to  this  point,  we  have  been 
most  busy  and  most  interested  in  exporting:  foodstuffs, 


INDUSTRIAL  ART  IN  HUMAN  LEADERSHIP      161 

ores,  lumber,  cotton,  coal,  oil,  etc.  Exhausted  by  con- 
flict, the  purely  material  necessities  of  the  nations  must 
first  be  satisfied,  their  cities  must  be  restored,  their 
industries  reestablished,  their  normal  stream  of  daily, 
material  living  as  quickly  as  possible  resumed.  For  that 
immediate  work  of  reconstruction,  our  huge  supplies  of 
crude  products  will  be  of  transcendent  importance.  If, 
however,  we  are  to  dominate  or  even  to  hold  the  world 
markets  beyond  this  first  reconstruction  period,  we  must 
depend  upon  things  far  different,  far  higher,  far  more 
complex,  than  are  associated  with  digging  ores,  felling 
trees  or  raising  wheat.  Moreover,  in  the  great  dearth 
of  money  following  this  incredibly  destructive  war, 
we  cannot  afford  to  carry  on  commerce  in  the  wasteful 
ways  of  the  past.  We  must  make  our  not  inexhaustible 
natural  riches  realize  their  utmost  possibilities,  giving 
them,  through  processes  of  artistic  manufacture,  a  value 
twice,  ten  times,  possibly  a  hundred  times  that  which,  as 
crude  products,  they  originally  possessed.  To  hold  for- 
eign trade  that  is  worth  the  holding,  to  develop  domestic 
trade  along  sound  avenues,  and  to  make  both  foreign 
and  domestic  trade  bring  in  adequate  revenues,  the 
manufacturer,  the  salesman,  the  merchant  and,  still  more, 
the  workman,  must  be  educated,  both  as  producer 
and  as  consumer,  to  appreciate  true  beauty,  to  under- 
stand its  elements,  to  utilize  them  in  the  things  they 
make  and  to  demand  them  in  the  things  they  buy. 

That  general  comprehension  of  the  aesthetics  of  indus- 
try which  is  fundamental  to  our  economic  future  can 
come,  of  course,  only  through  gradually  educating  the 


l62 

people  as  a  whole  to  understand  beauty  and  its  manifes- 
tations, to  appreciate  art  and  its  applications.  But 
special  preparation  for  this  new,  artistic  commerce  of 
ours  is  the  particular  province  of  those  schools  and  col- 
leges wherein  the  arts  are  taught,  and  wherein  men  and 
women  are  specifically  trained  in  the  applications  of  art 
to  substantially  every  form  of  industry.  Moreover, 
while  performing  the  special  and  immediate  task  of 
training  industrial  artists,  those  schools  must  never  lose 
sight  of  the  fact  that  they  should  be  also  the  chief  centres 
from  which  is  to  emanate  that  general  appreciation  of 
applied  art  essential,  as  has  been  suggested,  to  the  coun- 
try's welfare. 

As  a  first,  and  an  immediately  important  step,  towards 
converting  the  people  of  the  United  States  from  an  in- 
artistic into  an  artistic  nation,  industrial  art  can  make 
great  headway  and  can,  at  the  same  time,  demonstrate 
its  value  merely  from  the  money  standpoint  by  taking 
a  leading  part  in  reaching  and  holding  as  much  of  the 
markets  of  the  world  as  may  be  our  fair  share.  To  that 
end  those  interested  in  promoting  industrial  art  must 
carefully  study  the  markets  most  readily  open  to  this 
country,  must  delve  deep  into  the  complex  study  of  ex- 
ports, especially  as  those  exports  have  been  revolution- 
ized by  the  war,  must  determine  where  and  in  what 
directions  the  United  States  can  make  the  most  endur- 
ing impress  upon  foreign  territories  and,  with  this  study 
as  a  basis,  must  adapt  the  teaching  in  industrial  art  to 
the  immediate  needs  of  special  industries  from  this 
specific  point  of  view.  In  this  connection  the  schools 


INDUSTRIAL  ART  IN  HUMAN  LEADERSHIP       163 

of  industrial  art  will  find  a  strong  ally  in  the  fast  grow- 
ing interest  in  part-time  education.  If  those  schools 
can  get  hold  of  youth  actually  working  in  industries 
where  art  can  be  of  the  most  immediate  service,  can 
give  them,  out  of  their  working  week,  four,  eight  or 
twelve  hours  of  training  in  the  principles  and  appli- 
cations of  industrial  art,  they  can  accomplish  more  for 
the  immediate  development  of  American  standards  than 
in  any  other  way. 

Business  itself  has,  of  course,  an  important  task  in 
adapting  its  methods  to  meet  not  only  the  needs,  but 
also  the  idiosyncrasies,  of  the  many  new  peoples  that 
will  be  looking  to  us  for  their  supplies;  but  this  mere 
mechanics  of  the  export  problem  will  not  get  us  far 
unless  the  goods  which  business  is  preparing  itself  to 
supply  meet  those  artistic  standards  which,  to  a  large 
part  of  the  American  people,  are  still  a  sealed  book. 

The  fibres  in  an  ugly  cotton  print  may  be  as  strong 
as,  or  even  stronger  than,  those  in  an  exquisite  muslin; 
the  wool  content  in  a  hideous  piece  of  goods  may  be  as 
high  as  in  one  of  beautiful  design;  but  the  market  for 
the  ugly  will  be  with  the  degraded  and  the  savage,  while 
that  for  the  beautiful  will  be  with  those  whose  custom 
is  worth  while.  The  "  watch  that  made  the  dollar 
famous  "  serves  an  excellent  purpose,  but  the  timepiece 
that  has  given  America  a  reputation  in  watchmaking  is 
not  only  dependable  as  a  mechanism;  it  is  beautiful  as 
an  object  of  art.  The  American  motor-car  could  not 
have  made  the  market  for  itself  that  in  a  few  years  it 
has,  had  it  depended  solely  upon  either  its  mechanical 


164  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

make-up  or  its  cheapness;  it  has  made  its  way  mainly 
through  the  beauty,  simplicity  and  grace  of  its  design. 
And  the  extraordinary  part  of  it  is  that  this  artistic 
quality  which  adds  sometimes  several  hundred  per  cent 
to  the  selling  value  of  an  article  is,  in  itself,  as  a  rule 
and  from  the  purely  material  point  of  view,  a  cheap 
thing.  The  actual  raw  material  used,  the  time  consumed 
in  manufacturing,  the  mere  labor  cost  of  a  beautiful 
product  may  be  no  more  than  for  one  hideously  ugly; 
but  the  selling  value  of  the  lovely  article  is  always 
higher,  and  is  often  many  times  greater,  than  that  of 
the  object  which  brazenly  proclaims  its  want  of  taste. 

This  question  of  selling  value,  important  as  it  is,  has 
far  less  bearing  upon  the  problems  of  our  commercial 
future,  however,  than  have  other,  more  intangible  con- 
siderations. The  expression  of  beauty  in  things  made 
reacts  incalculably  for  good  upon  the  maker ;  the  appre- 
ciation of  beauty  in  things  purchased  influences  the  gen- 
eral public  to  a  degree  which  most  of  us  have  hardly 
begun  to  understand.  Real  beauty  has  a  psychological 
and  a  moral  influence  of  the  highest  consequence. 
Through  the  senses  of  sight,  of  hearing,  and  even  of 
taste  and  smell,  character  itself  is  in  no  small  measure 
formed.  The  intellect  is  refined  by  beauty,  coarsened 
by  ugliness;  the  moral  nature  is  strengthened  and  up- 
held by  what  is  aesthetically  sound  and  true,  is  hardened 
and  degraded  by  what  is  aesthetically  gross  and  bad. 
The  character  of  a  city  people  is  markedly  affected  by 
that  city's  beauty  or  its  ugliness;  the  life  of  a  family  is 
influenced  in  surprising  measure  by  its  surroundings, 


INDUSTRIAL  ART  IN  HUMAN  LEADERSHIP       165 

orderly  or  disorderly,  lovely  or  hideous, .  aesthetically 
stimulating  or  aesthetically  debauching;  and  the  life- 
value  of  the  individual  is  in  large  measure  gained  or 
lost  through  the  aesthetic  and  emotional  forces  which 
surround  his  developing  career. 

Therefore,  immediately  following  upon  or  coincident 
with  the  special  work  of  helping  the  country  to  hold 
the  right  type  of  foreign  markets,  those  having  authority 
in  industrial  art  should  set  out  deliberately,  buoyantly 
and  with  holy  conviction  of  the  greatness  of  their  mis- 
sion, to  raise  the  level  of  aesthetic  understanding  on  the 
part  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States.  To  that  end  they  need  to  determine  first  of  all 
what  one  may  call  the  American  standards  (for  there 
is  an  honorable  nationality  in  aesthetics)  for  industrial 
art,  standards  based  not  upon  fashions  or  fancies  or 
the  whims  of  petty  schools,  but  based  upon  those  sound 
canons  of  art  concerning  which  there  is  substantial 
agreement.  Having  arrived  at  those  standards,  there 
should  then  be  inaugurated  what,  for  want  of  a  better 
word,  may  be  called  propaganda  for  the  understanding 
and  acceptance  of  those  canons  in  the  wide  and  varied 
fields  of  architecture,  of  so-called  landscape  architecture, 
of  street  and  house  decoration,  of  dress,  of  furniture,  of 
all  types,  in  short,  of  personal,  household  and  civic  dec- 
oration. 

No  more  fortunate  time  than  the  present  could  be 
found  for  such  propaganda.  As  a  people  we  will  be 
greatly  chastened  by  the  war,  and  will  be  wholly  in 
the  mood  to  listen  to  the  preaching  of  that  simplicity 


i66  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

which,  in  industrial  art  as  in  almost  everything  else, 
is  the  foundation  of  aesthetic  satisfaction.  The  great 
majority  of  us  do  not  really  like  the  hideous  buildings, 
brick  or  brownstone  in  the  city  and  wood  in  the  country, 
that  disgrace  the  profession  of  the  architect;  substan- 
tially all  of  us  are  affronted  by  the  billboards,  unkempt 
vacant  lots,  dirty  alleys,  vile  slums,  and  the  rest  of  the 
horrors  compounded  of  greed,  laziness  and  want  of 
taste  that  stamp  our  cities  and  towns  with  a  common 
seal  of  ugliness;  we  are  ripe  for  rebellion  against  the 
atrocities  with  which  that  anonymous  scapegoat,  "  the 
fashion,"  strives  to  take  all  dignity  and  grace  out  of  the 
human  face  and  figure;  and  there  is  not  a  comic  paper 
which  does  not  reflect  our  widespread  discontent  with 
the  gewgaws  that  masquerade  as  household  decoration. 
And  half  of  the  restlessness  and  nervousness  of  the 
typical  American  is  due  to  the  fussiness,  the  flashiness, 
the  overmuchness,  the  general  hurly-burliness,  of  the 
alleged  decorative  side  of  his  daily  life,  that  side  which 
it  is  in  the  power  of  those  who  preside  in  the  realm  of 
industrial  art  to  reform.  If  we  are  to  be  saved  from 
ourselves,  we  must  be  educated  into  a  taste  that  will 
sweep  away  all  this  phantasmagoria  of  the  superfluous, 
banish  dirt  and  litter  and  all  that  corrupting  crew  of 
ugliness,  and  make  our  streets,  our  houses,  our  parks, 
our  hats,  our  gowns  and  even  our  shirts  and  ties,  preach- 
ers of  the  blessed  gospel  of  simplicity,  of  fitness  and  of 
restful  beauty. 

The  very  fact  that  all  this  sounds  to  a  degree  fantas- 
tical is  one  of  the  strongest  proofs  that  we  are  as  yet  in 


INDUSTRIAL  ART  IN  HUMAN  LEADERSHIP      167 

the  pioneer  stage  of  national  civilization.  We  are  still 
rather  ashamed  of  beauty,  still  feel  that  there  is  some- 
thing effeminate  about  the  man  who  advocates  the  all- 
importance  of  aesthetic  understanding.  A  good  deal  of 
our  civic  and  domestic  ugliness  has  its  foundation  in  the 
fear  that  public  opinion  will  condemn  as  namby-pamby 
and  old-womanish  any  undue  attention  even  to  neatness 
and  good  order.  It  is  out  of  this  state  of  mind  that,  as 
a  nation,  we  must  lift  ourselves  if  we  are  to  be  a  world- 
power  ;  it  is  to  a  diligent  and  respectful  study  of  beauty 
and  of  its  embodiments  in  the  so-called  fine  and  the 
so-called  applied  arts  that  we  must  give  ourselves  if 
we  are  to  command  international  respect ;  and,  since  we 
are  fundamentally  an  industrial  people  (using  that  term 
to  include  the  greatest  of  our  industries,  agriculture), 
our  first  attention  must  be  given  to  that  aspect  of  art 
which  we  denominate  industrial.  If  we  bring  about 
during  the  next  generation  or  two  a  high  development 
in  the  design  of  our  machines  and  their  products,  in  the 
ornamentation  of  our  cities  and  our  homes,  in  the  artistic 
quality  of  our  fabrics,  whether  of  cotton,  silk  or  wool, 
not  only  shall  we  make  certain  of  our  markets  abroad, 
not  only  shall  we  immensely  widen  our  markets  at  home, 
but  we  shall  raise  our  standards  of  living,  of  thought, 
of  all  that  we  include  in  the  term  civilization  to  the  point 
at  which  will  begin  to  emerge  great  artists  in  the  realms 
of  building,  of  sculpture,  of  painting,  of  music,  of  liter- 
ature, —  those  artists  through  whose  work,  and  through 
whose  work  alone,  is  to  be  fixed,  in  the  relentless  verdict 
of  final  history,  the  everlasting  status  both  of  the 
ancient,  and  of  the  modern,  nations  of  the  world. 


THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  MANUFACTURER 

THE  war  was  hideous,  —  so  hideous  that  those  of 
us  who  were  obliged,  during  it,  to  spend  the  greater 
part  of  our  time  in  Washington,  feel  as  if  we  had  been 
living  through  a  dreadful  nightmare.  Yet  many  of 
the  lessons  that,  in  this  hard  and  sorrowful  school  of 
conflict,  the  country  learned,  not  only  are  salutary,  but 
are  of  the  highest  moment  to  the  future  of  the  United 
States.  One  of  the  most  important  of  those  lessons 
is  that,  as  a  nation  and  as  individuals,  we  have  been 
wasters  and  that  this  waste,  from  now  on,  must  cease. 

To  no  one  more  vividly  than  to  the  manufacturer  has 
this  fact  of  scandalous  waste  been  shown.  He  is  de- 
pendent upon  steady  and  assured  power;  the  coal  sit- 
uation of  1918  made  him  see,  at  immense  cost,  how 
clumsily  we  have  handled  and,  unfortunately,  still  are 
handling  this  main  sustenance  of  industry.  It  showed 
him,  too,  how  stupidly  we  have  failed  to  develop  that 
almost  limitless  supply  of  power  which  we  might  get 
from  our  unharnessed  rivers.  The  manufacturer  is 
helpless,  of  course,  without  a  dependable  stream  of  raw 
materials;  the  upsetting  of  the  world's  markets  proved 
to  him  how  careless  and  happy-go-lucky  he  has  here- 
tofore been  in  supplying  himself  with  such  materials. 
Without  transportation  to  bring  his  raw  stuff  to  him 

168 


THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  MANUFACTURER         169 

and  to  take  his  finished  stuff  away,  his  labor  as  a  manu- 
facturer is  worse  than  wasted;  the  congestion,  and  in 
many  instances  the  utter  breakdown,  of  the  railways 
made  clear  the  folly  of  the  past  handling  of  the  railroad 
situation,  including,  on  the  part  of  the  Government,  per- 
nicious meddling  and,  on  the  part  of  the  railroads,  not 
only  graft,  but  the  needless  killing,  in  so  many  cases,  of 
good  auxiliary  means  of  transportation.  To  pro- 
duce goods  and  to  have  no  markets  in  which  to  dispose 
of  them,  is  the  beginning  of  bankruptcy;  yet,  as  the 
war  proved,  we  have  never  given  any  real,  constructive 
thought  to  this  essential  aspect  of  the  industrial  prob- 
lem. Above  all,  though  industry  knows  itself  to  be 
helpless  without  an  adequate  supply  of  suitable  labor,  it 
required  this  worldwide  war  to  bring  the  manufacturer 
to  consider  questions,  such  as  those  of  labor  overturn, 
of  industrial  training,  of  labor  efficiency,  of  organiza- 
tion, that,  up  to  this  time,  he  had  smiled  at  as  being 
dreams  of  the  much-despised  "  professor."  Taking  all 
these  and  many  other  minor  things  together,  the  average 
manufacturer  is  realizing  for  the  first  time  in  his  life 
that  manufacturing  is  not  merely  the  buying  and  fab- 
ricating of  raw  materials,  that  merchandizing  is  not  a 
simple  question  of  buyers  and  salesmen,  that  the  bring- 
ing and  sending  of  goods  is  not  just  the  telephoning  of 
an  order  to  the  railroad,  that  the  question  of  markets 
is  not  solved  when  he  has  beaten  some  particular  rival, 
and  that  the  labor  question  involves  many  things  beyond 
the  hiring  and  firing  of  such  casual  labor  as  may  happen 
to  come  to  the  mill  door. 


i  yo  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

This  being  the  chastened  condition  of  the  manufac- 
turer's mind,  it  would  seem,  as  it  is,  an  admirable  time 
in  which  to  place  before  him  the  fact  that  all  these  and 
many  other  problems  lead  back  for  solution  to  the  ques- 
tion of  right  education.  If  the  manufacturer  himself, 
if  his  customers,  if  those  who  supply  him  with  materials, 
transport  his  goods  and  handle  his  labor  problems  had 
all  been  generally  trained  in  economics  and  specifically 
trained  in  the  jobs  they  have  to  do,  they  would  under- 
stand that  all  these  questions  of  coal  and  railways  and 
markets  and  labor  are  tied  up  with  one  another  and 
that,  if  one  is  to  make  a  real  success  in  industry,  he  must 
make  a  study  of  these  fundamental  things  as  well  as  of 
the  comparatively  minor  problems  of  how  to  make  his 
goods  and  how  to  find  salesmen  to  place  those  goods, 
directly  or  through  effective  advertising,  upon  the 
market. 

The  educator  has  indeed  ground  for  rejoicing  that  at 
last  he  is  to  come  into  his  own  and  that  throughout  the 
whole  industrial  world  there  is  to  be  such  an  appre- 
ciation as  never  before  of  the  value  of  sound  education. 
But  while  thus  exulting,  he  will  find  his  ecstasies  some- 
what tempered  with  the  grim  realization  that,  having 
uncorked  this  bottle  of  appreciation,  on  the  part  of  the 
manufacturer,  of  the  value  of  education,  he  has  at  the 
same  time  released,  as  in  the  old  story  of  Sindbad,  a 
djinn  that  will  sooner  or  later  spread  out  and  fill  the 
whole  educational  heavens,  a  djinn  who  is  going  to  ask 
the  school  and  the  college  and  the  university:  why  do 
you  do  this?  why  do  you  teach  thus  and  so?  why  do 


THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  MANUFACTURER        171 

you  cling  to  such  and  such  methods  ?  what  is  your  jus- 
tification for  teaching  in  the  twentieth  century  subjects 
that  were  taught  in  the  seventeenth?  and,  especially, 
what  is  your  excuse  for  teaching  them  in  the  same  old 
way? 

The  manufacturer,  in  his  new  mood  of  self-study  and 
of  the  study  of  industry,  will  no  longer  accept  old  ways 
of  schooling,  will  no  longer  remain  indifferent  to  what 
the  schools  are  doing  with  his  children  and  with  those 
other  children  who  are  soon  to  be  either  his  employees, 
his  suppliers  of  materials,  of  power  and  of  transporta- 
tion, or  else  his  customers.  When  the  leaders  in  indus- 
try get  really  aroused  to  the  fact  that  success  or  failure 
in  any  particular  industry,  or  in  the  commerce  and 
manufacturing  of  a  region,  or  in  the  development  of 
the  country  as  a  whole,  is  largely  a  question  of  right 
education,  they  will  demand  that  the  schools  be  made 
over  to  meet  the  existing  economic  and  social  situation, 
that  those  responsible  for  the  schools  shall  make  them- 
selves thoroughly  familiar  with  that  economic  and  social 
field,  and  that  there  shall  be  provided  from  the  common 
funds  revenues  adequate  to  carry  forward  education 
in  a  manner  consonant  with  the  genuine  needs  of  mod- 
ern, civilized  society. 

I  do  not  in  the  least  mean  that  the  manufacturers  are 
going  to  demand  that  the  schools  shall  train  boys  and 
girls  solely  or  specifically  for  manufacturing.  On  the 
contrary,  when  those  industrial  leaders  really  under- 
stand the  relation  of  schooling  to  industry,  they  will 
call  for  an  educational  plan  much  broader  than  we  have, 


172  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

a  system  that  will  give  the  boys  and  girls  of  the  coming 
generation  initiative,  mental  flexibility,  ambition,  that 
will  fill  them  with  ideas  concerning  the  interdependence 
of  industry,  labor,  transportation,  legislation,  citizen- 
ship and  daily  life,  concerning  the  prevention  of  material 
and  human  wastes,  concerning  their  duties  as  members 
of  a  civilized  society,  that  none  of  the  earlier  generations 
has  had,  in  its  rank  and  file,  any  sort  of  opportunity 
to  secure. 

The  first  thing  that  a  manufacturer  would  do  with 
education,  if  he  had  the  power,  would  be  to  make  it  real, 
immediate  and  interesting  to  the  growing  child  and 
youth.  The  schoolmaster  has  a  great  deal  to  say  about 
the  doctrine  of  interest  and  about  apperception;  but  in 
most  schools  there  is  neither  any  atmosphere  of  interest 
nor  any  genuine  connection  between  the  school  tasks 
and  the  child's  apperceptive  experience.  It  is  only  for 
a  very  short  time  that  the  school  can  hold  the  child  at 
all ;  and  from  the  point  of  view  of  a  business  man  it  is  a 
wicked  waste  that  this  short  time  should  not  be  made  as 
fruitful  as  is  possible.  And  common  sense  teaches  that 
the  only  way  in  which  to  render  it  fruitful  is  to  make  the 
school  period  interesting,  to  see  that  its  subject-matter 
is  comprehensible,  and  to  place  before  the  child,  as  far  as 
possible,  a  visible  and  understandable  aim  for  the  work 
that  he  is  told  to  do.  Make  it  interesting,  simple  and 
with  a  definite  objective,  and  there  is  almost  no  limit 
to  the  amount  of  work  that  one  can  get  out  of  even  the 
commonplace  child;  and  that  work  will  be  secured  with 
far  less  mental  and  physical  fatigue,  on  the  part  of  both 


THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  MANUFACTURER        173 

pupil  and  teacher,  than  under  the  methods  that  now  hold 
in  most  public  and  private  schools. 

The  next  thing-  that  the  manufacturer  would  bring 
about  in  education,  if  he  could,  is  to  make  it  business- 
like. The  most  important  period  in  a  human  life,  so  far 
as  future  character,  happiness  and  success  are  concerned, 
is  that  of  the  school  years,  including  at  least  those  of  the 
secondary  school.  Yet  that  most  vital  time  is  usually 
treated  as  if  it  were  of  little  consequence,  as  if  it  were 
not  until  the  period  following  school  that  the  really 
serious  business  of  human  life  begins.  Whereas,  any- 
one who  has  had  anything  to  do  with  childhood  and 
youth  knows  that  unless  the  physical,  mental  and  moral 
character  is  firmly  established  before  the  eighteenth 
year,  there  is  almost  no  hope  of  doing  anything  there- 
after. Consequently,  education  should  be  treated  as  a 
business:  the  business  of  establishing  health,  mentality 
and  character,  and  should  be  subject,  therefore,  to  the 
rules  and  methods  of  business,  adapted,  of  course,  to  the 
age  of  the  person  concerned  and  to  the  special  nature 
of  the  business  that  is  being  carried  on.  The  essential 
thing  is  that  the  child,  the  parent,  the  teacher  and  the 
citizen  in  general,  —  all  should  realize  and  should  act 
in  accordance  with  this  realization,  that  in  the  period 
between  five  years  of  age  and  sixteen,  eighteen  or 
twenty-one  years  of  age,  as  the  case  may  be,  all  of  them 
ought  to  attend  industriously,  earnestly  and  with  full 
understanding  of  what  they  are  undertaking,  to  the 
business  of  making  each  particular  child  into  the  best 
citizen,  physically,  mentally  and  morally,  that  he  is  ca- 
pable of  becoming. 


174  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

A  third  thing  that  the  manufacturer  would  bring 
about  if  he  could,  is  an  understanding  on  the  part  of 
the  pupil  in  school  of  what  his  future  responsibilities 
are  almost  certain  to  be.  It  should  be  made  plain  to  the 
boy  that  he  has  an  important  part  to  play  in  the  coming 
generation,  that  it  is  his  business  in  the  childhood  and 
adolescent  years  to  prepare  himself  for  his  part,  and  that 
his  duties  range  themselves  under  three  main  heads: 
the  duty  of  earning  as  good  a  living  as  he  possibly 
can,  so  that  he  may  make  due  return  for  all  that  the 
community,  during  his  unproductive  years,  has  done  for 
him;  the  duty  of  establishing  himself  as  a  real  part 
of  society  by  marrying  and  bringing  up  a  family;  and 
the  duty  of  taking  his  full  share  in  those  common  re- 
sponsibilities for  the  welfare  of  the  community  as  a  whole 
which  are  comprehended  under  the  general  term,  citi- 
zenship. 

It  is  for  these  three  things  that,  in  the  main,  the  edu- 
cation of  the  child  is  carried  forward;  it  is  because  we 
believe  these  ends  worthy  and  desirable  that  most  Amer- 
ican communities  appropriate  a  large  part  of  their 
revenues  to  public  education ;  yet,  when  it  comes  to  using 
the  money  so  appropriated,  cities  and  towns  lose  sight 
almost  entirely  of  what  that  money  is  intended 
for  and  spend  it  upon  a  kind  of  so-called  education  that 
in  many  cases  has  only  a  very  remote  bearing  indeed 
upon  either  vocational  competence,  sound  family  life  or 
intelligent  citizenship. 

It  will  be  objected  at  once  that  these  aims  are  too 
large  and  too  vague,  that  there  are  certain  tools  of 


THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  MANUFACTURER        175 

speech,  writing,  number,  etc.,  which  the  child  must  not 
fail  to  acquire,  and  that  there  is  not  time  enough  to  do 
so  much  as  these  wider  objectives  imply.  To  this  there 
is  ready  answer  that,  if  the  schools  really  availed  them- 
selves of  the  doctrines  of  interest  and  apperception,  if 
they  actually  treated  the  education  of  the  child  as  a 
business  to  be  pursued  during  hours  corresponding  to 
those  of  the  industrial  world,  and  if,  during  those  hours, 
they  devoted  themselves  not  merely  to  training  in  book- 
learning,  but  to  the  real  development  of  the  child 
as  a  future  citizen  and  homemaker,  all  the  above  things 
could  be  accomplished  with  much  less  pain  to  the  pupil 
than  at  present  and  with  the  far  more  important  result 
that  such  teaching  would  really  influence,  as  most  of  the 
present  textbook  work  does  not,  his  subsequent  social, 
vocational  and  moral  life. 

A  fourth  thing  that  manufacturers  are  beginning  to 
ask  of  the  schools  is  why  they  keep  themselves  so  much 
apart  from  the  other  educative  forces  of  the  community ; 
why  they  do  not  cooperate  with  the  parents,  the  indus- 
tries, the  civic  life  in  general,  using  them  as  aids,  as 
laboratories,  as  co-teachers,  in  the  upbringing  of  the 
boys  and  girls.  The  schools  maintain,  of  course,  that 
cooperation  should  come  from  the  other  side,  and  that 
the  school,  as  an  agent  of  the  community,  cannot  take 
such  initiative.  As  a  manufacturer  who  is  somewhat 
familiar  also  with  school  conditions,  I  am  convinced  that 
the  initiative  must  come  from  the  school  side,  and  that 
it  is  a  legitimate  duty  of  the  schools  to  educate  the 
parents,  the  industries  and  the  community  in  general 


176  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

as  to  what  they  can  do  and  ought  to  do  to  help  in  this 
most  important  of  all  social  duties:  the  preparation  of 
boys  and  girls  for  an  effective  adult  life. 

There  are  several  ways  in  which  the  school  and  in- 
dustry, whether  that  be  manufacturing,  commerce  or 
agriculture,  can  get  together  for  mutual  and  immeas- 
urably important  help.  The  school  can  use  the  factory, 
the  farm,  the  office  or  the  store  as  a  laboratory  in  which, 
under  proper  supervision  and  safeguards,  the  boys  and 
girls  may  get  that  acquaintance  with  real  things  which 
it  is  impossible  to  give  in  the  schools.  Impossible, 
because  the  air  of  reality  is  lacking  in  the  school, 
and  because  no  community  can  afford  to  fit  up  in 
its  school  buildings  those  complete  industrial  and  com- 
mercial plants,  or  to  surround  the  school  buildings  with 
that  extent  and  variety  of  agriculture  which,  in  most 
communities,  are  to  be  found,  within  a  reasonable  dis- 
tance of  the  school  buildings,  in  the  factories,  stores  and 
farms  which  are  themselves  the  economic  heart  of  the 
community. 

Another  way  in  which  the  school  and  industry  can 
cooperate  is  by  using  the  former  as  an  adjunct  to  the 
factory,  the  store  and  the  farm,  opening  its  facilities, 
both  day  and  night,  to  those  boys  and  girls,  men  and 
women,  who  have  had  to  go  to  work  at  an  early  age, 
or  who  for  one  reason  or  another  have  been  denied 
proper  schooling,  or  who,  their  ambition  roused  as  they 
get  into  the  thick  of  earning  a  living,  desire  systematic 
training  for  higher  economic  service. 

A  third  way  in  which  the  school  and  industry  can 


THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  MANUFACTURER        177 

cooperate  is  by  definitely  dividing  the  work  of  educat- 
ing the  boy  or  girl  during  certain  adolescent  years,  the 
pupil  spending  half  his  time  in  school  and  half  his  time 
in  remunerative  industry,  the  so-called  practical  work  in 
the  shop,  store  or  farm  being  illuminated  by  the  theory 
taught  in  the  school,  and  the  theoretical  studies  of  the 
school  being  given  life  and  meaning  by  the  practical 
work  of  industry. 

The  machinery  by  which  these  several  types  of  coop- 
eration are  to  be  brought  about  is  that  of  the  evening 
school,  the  part-time  continuation  school  and  the  cooper- 
ative day  school.  In  the  first  will  be  cared  for,  mainly, 
those  older  men  and  women  who  are  employed  through- 
out the  day  and  who  can  receive  instruction,  therefore, 
only  in  the  evening  hours;  in  the  second  will  be  served, 
chiefly,  those  youth  between  the  ages  of  fourteen  and 
eighteen  whose  schooling  is  so  defective  as  seriously  to 
interfere  with  their  economic  and  social  progress ;  while 
the  third  will  cover  the  cases  of  those  thousands  of 
ambitious  youth  who,  unable  to  afford  the  loss  of  time 
involved  in  securing  a  higher  education,  can,  by  work- 
ing and  earning  half  the  time,  so  far  support  them- 
selves as  to  be  able  to  devote  the  remaining  half  to  sys- 
tematic study. 

A  fourth  way  in  which  the  industries  can  be  of  service 
to  the  schools  is  in  connection  with  the  all  day  vocational 
school,  wherein  the  boy  is  deliberately  preparing  himself 
for  a  specific  vocation.  The  teaching  in  such  a  school 
is  the  more  effective  the  more  it  utilizes  the  factories, 
the  stores  and  the  farms  of  its  vicinity  as  laboratories 


178  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

in  which  the  pupils  are  permitted  to  get  the  main  part 
of  their  practical  experience. 

The  manufacturer  has  no  anxiety  as  to  the  readjust- 
ment of  our  public  and  private  schools  to  meet  those 
exigencies  which  the  war  has  so  keenly  brought  home 
to  us,  provided  education  in  the  United  States  continues, 
as  it  has  so  well  begun,  to  develop  sound  vocational 
education  in  its  schools  and  colleges.  That  development 
not  only  compels  the  schools  to  measure  up  their  courses 
in  actual  terms  of  the  real  achievement  of  their  boys 
and  girls,  it  compels  them  to  study  and  to  get  into  line 
with  the  real  forces  that  dominate  the  social  and  eco- 
nomic life  of  to-day.  Moreover,  vocational  education, 
from  its  very  nature,  must  bring  about  increasing  coop- 
eration between  school  and  industry,  through  the  day 
industrial  school,  the  evening  school,  the  part-time 
school  and  the  cooperative  school.  That  being  the  case, 
the  manufacturer  is  as  certain  as  one  can  be  of  any- 
thing in  this  uncertain  world,  that  the  old  traditional 
methods  of  teaching  cannot  long  endure,  that  the  so- 
called  academic  studies  will  remain  only  after  they  have 
proved  their  right  to  live  by  reshaping  themselves  to 
meet  the  true  needs  of  modern  life,  and  that  the  schools 
as  a  whole  will  get  more  and  more  awake  to  the  fact 
that  they  are  supported  by  the  public,  not  to  fit  boys 
into  an  ironclad  system,  but  to  fit  a  very  varied  and 
flexible  system  into  the  actual  needs  of  individual  boys. 

This  general  awakening  is  being  helped  to  an  unex- 
pected degree  by  the  working  out  of  the  so-called  Smith- 
Hughes  law  for  the  promotion  of  vocational  education. 


THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  MANUFACTURER        179 

Under  that  law,  every  state  in  the  Union  has  created  a 
State  board  for  Vocational  Education,  and,  in  increasing 
amounts,  the  federal  government  stands  ready  to  sub- 
sidize the  teaching  and  supervision  of  secondary  training 
in  agriculture,  the  teaching  of  boys  and  girls  over  four- 
teen in  the  trades  and  industries  and  in  home  economics, 
and  the  preparing  of  teachers  along  these  three  general 
avenues.  To  the  manufacturer  it  is  of  great  interest 
that  at  least  one-third  of  the  money  appropriated  by  the 
states  and  matched  by  the  federal  government  for  the 
training  in  trades  and  industries  must  be  used  for  part- 
time  instruction.  This  provision  emphasizes  the  inter- 
est of  the  government  in  strengthening  education  at  one 
of  its  weakest  points.  That  point  is  the  lack  of  edu- 
cational supervision  of  the  boy  and  girl  between  four- , 
teen,  when,  in  most  cases,  he  can  leave  and  does  leave 
school,  and  sixteen,  seventeen  or  eighteen,  when  he 
arrives  at  the  age  for  beginning  really  productive  work. 
During  those  intermediate  years,  unimportant  from  the 
point  of  view  of  industry  but  perhaps  more  important 
than  any  others  from  the  point  of  view  of  psychology, 
morals  and  education  in  general,  part-time  schooling 
permits  of  the  school  keeping  hold  upon  the  youth,  ad- 
vising and  training  him  with  a  view  to  his  effective 
future,  and  supplementing  his  remunerative  employment 
with  studies  that  will  improve  his  outlook  upon  life, 
give  meaning  to  his  daily  work  and  strengthen  char- 
acter at  the  very  moment  when  it  most  needs  wise 
support.  The  part-time  continuation  school,  thus  fostered 
by  the  Vocational  Education  law,  has  educational  pos- 


i8o  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

sibilities  beyond  our  present  conception;  but  it  cannot  be 
made  really  effective  until  the  states  pass,  as  they  should, 
compulsory  laws  requiring  school  attendance  between 
fourteen  and  sixteen,  for  all  youth.  This  attendance 
should  be  for  the  entire  session  if  they  are  not  at  work, 
and  for  at  least  eight  hours  a  week,  out  of  their  working 
time,  if  they  are  regularly  employed.  Those  manufac- 
turers who  oppose,  or  who  are  even  indifferent  to,  such 
legislation  as  this  are  not  only  working  against  the  wel- 
fare of  all  boys  and  girls,  they  are  perpetuating  that 
blindness  and  folly  from  which  have  arisen  most  of  the 
wastes  and  losses  under  which  industry  is  suffering. 

Another  form  of  education  which  the  Vocational  Edu- 
cation law  permits  and  encourages,  is  the  formation  of 
evening  classes  for  men  and  women  at  least  eighteen 
years  old,  in  subjects  supplementary  to  their  day  employ- 
ment. This  gives  new  and  added  opportunities  for  those 
ambitious  workmen  who  desire  to  fit  themselves,  as 
modern  industry  makes  it  so  difficult  for  them  to  do 
within  the  industry  itself,  for  those  higher  positions 
which  are  the  first  rungs  on  the  ladder  of  industrial 
competence.  As  to  the  day  industrial  school  and  the 
cooperative  part-time  school,  it  is  for  the  schools,  as  al- 
ready said,  to  educate  the  manufacturers,  the  merchants 
and  the  farmers  as  to  the  important  part  that  they  should 
play  in  making  public  education  really  serve  the  boys 
and  girls,  by  opening  their  plants  and  their  facilities  to 
those  youth  who,  eager  to  get  a  thorough  schooling,  want 
to  get  it  while  at  daily  work.  Young  men  and  women 
so  trained  will  be,  without  question,  the  best  source  from 


THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  MANUFACTURER        181 

which  to  secure  those  real  leaders  in  industry  for  which 
the  manufacturer,  the  merchant  and  the  farmer  are  for- 
ever clamoring. 

There  will  continue,  as  there  now  is,  a  shortage  of 
labor  in  this  country,  and  especially  will  there  be  a 
shortage  of  men  and  women  competent  for  leadership, 
for  the  exercise  of  initiative,  for  the  carrying  of  indus- 
try out  of  those  ruts  from  which  it  must  be  lifted  if  we 
are  to  hold  our  own  in  the  great  markets  of  the  world. 
The  only  way  in  which  that  shortage  of  leadership  can 
be  made  good  is  for  school  and  industry  to  work  shoulder 
to  shoulder  in  educating  boys  and  girls  to  assume  re- 
sponsibility. This  they  can  do  if  they  will ;  and  they  have 
the  sanction,  both  moral  and  financial,  of  the  federal 
and  state  governments  for  doing  it.  And  in  thus  coop- 
erating, freely  and  wisely,  for  the  development  of  leaders 
in  industry,  they  will  not  only  be  helping  production, 
they  will  not  only  be  giving  to  the  schools  such  vigor, 
due  to  purpose  and  interest,  as  they  have  never  before 
had,  but  they  will  at  the  same  time  be  building  up  a 
generation  that  will  not  tolerate  such  indifference,  such 
waste,  such  slacking  in  the  matter  of  active  devotion  to 
the  duties  of  the  citizen  as  we  saw  before  the  great  war 
—  that  war  which,  with  blood  and  iron,  taught  us 
in  bitterness  what  we  were  too  indifferent  to  learn  in 
the  easy,  prosperous  and  purblind  days  of  peace. 


III.     IN  TEACHING 


EDUCATION:   THE  COMMON   HUMAN   TASK 

MOST  of  us  are  surprised  to  realize  that  whether  WP 
wish  to  be  or  not,  each  one  of  us  is  every  day  an  edu- 
cator. There  is  no  escaping  the  responsibility.  Even 
if  we  have  no  children  to  train,  we  must  all  the  time  be 
educating  ourselves ;  and,  in  addition  to  that  tough  task, 
most  of  us  are  under  the  ceaseless  necessity  of  attempt- 
ing to  educate  the  employers  for  whom  we  work,  the 
employees  who  work  for  us,  and  the  public  whom,  in 
the  slang  phrase,  we  are  in  one  way  or  another  "  work- 
ing." 

Consequently,  education  is  in  a  wholly  different  cate- 
gory from  the  other  great  professions.  It  is  proverbial, 
for  example,  that  the  man  who  tries  to  be  his  own  lawyer 
has  a  fool  for  his  client;  and,  while  not  one  of  us  but 
spends  a  large  portion  of  his  time  preaching  to  others, 
we  really  have  no  immediate  concern,  except  when  we 
are  christened,  married  or  buried,  with  the  clerical  pro- 
fession. While  we  have  to  be  more  or  less  active  par- 
ticipants in  the  experiments  of  the  medical  profession, 
the  less  we  know  of  medicine  the  better ;  and  as  for  the 
other  professions  based  on  scientific  knowledge,  such 
as  engineering,  they  are  quite  outside  our  ordinary 
range  of  understanding. 

The  profession  of  education,  however,  is  a  wholly  dif- 

182 


EDUCATION:    THE  COMMON  HUMAN  TASK       183 

ferent  matter,  for  we  are  it  and  it  is  we.  It  is  as  much 
a  part  of  our  existence  as  is  the  food  we  eat ;  and  when- 
ever we  assume  any  responsibility  whatever,  we  find  our- 
selves confronted  with  educational  problems  of  the  most 
far-reaching  character.  Therefore,  while  it  is  meddle- 
some for  the  layman  to  concern  himself  with  the  details 
of  other  great  professions,  it  is  not  meddlesome,  it  is 
necessary,  for  him  to  take  an  active  part  in  that  pro- 
fession which  is  fundamental  to  all  others:  education. 
It  is  essential,  however,  that  he  should  not  be  active 
except  in  a  rational,  helpful,  understanding  and  effective 
way. 

While  it  is  natural  for  us  to  believe  that  the  particular 
period  in  which  we  live  is  the  most  important  in  all  his- 
tory, it  is  scarcely  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  the  last 
ten  years  have  been  the  most  significant  in  the  entire 
progress  of  American  education.  For  in  that  period 
we  have  placed  ourselves,  more  than  at  any  previous 
time,  face  to  face  with  real  questions.  As  a  result,  we 
are  learning  to  what  a  degree  every  one  of  us  —  whether 
father,  mother,  employer,  employee  or  ordinary  citizen 
—  is  responsible,  along  with  the  teachers,  for  the  solu- 
tion of  its  difficult  problems.  We  are  looking  at  educa- 
tion from  a  new  point  of  view,  one  which,  in  another 
generation  or  two,  is  going  to  transform  enormously  the 
whole  conduct  of  teaching. 

What  is  this  new  point  of  view  ?  It  is  that  education 
is  not  alone  the  concern  of  the  church,  or  the  college,  or 
the  learned  professions,  or  the  school  board,  or  the 
schoolmaster;  but  is  the  concern  particularly  of  the 


184  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

plain,  ordinary  citizen.  And  as  such,  education  must 
conform,  within  reasonable  limits,  to  his  real  and  funda- 
mental needs  as  a  citizen,  as  a  parent,  as  a  worker  and 
as  a  human  being. 

The  first  need  of  the  civilized  human  being  is  for 
sound  health,  both  for  himself  and  for  his  family.  His 
second  need  is  for  high  standards  of  right  and  wrong 
and  for  a  satisfactory  working  morality.  His  third 
need  —  since  no  man  can  be  a  good  citizen  unless  he  is 
first  an  effective  and  self-respecting  earner  —  is  for  a 
trained  efficiency.  His  fourth  need  is  for  skill  and  in- 
formation along  the  common  lines  of  human  interests. 
His  fifth  need  is  for  an  appreciation  of  social  respon- 
sibility, of  what  we  call  good  citizenship.  And  his 
sixth  need  is  for  an  understanding  of  beauty,  whether 
in  nature,  in  art,  in  living  or  in  character. 

Education,  therefore,  should  be  a  rounded  process 
through  which  the  child,  the  youth  and  the  man  ought 
to  get  and  to  keep  good  health,  sound  morals,  efficiency, 
skill,  useful  information,  a  sense  of  social  responsibility 
and  a  love  of  the  beautiful;  for  the  man  or  woman  who 
is  deficient  along  any  one  of  these  lines  is  not  securing 
the  most  and  the  best  out  of  this  wonderful  and  inter- 
esting experience  called  life  which,  so  far  as  we  know, 
comes  to  us  but  once. 

Obviously  no  one  teacher  can  cover  all  these  sides  of 
education;  obviously,  moreover,  no  school  can  educate 
in  all  these  directions  unless  it  has  the  fullest  and  most 
active  cooperation  from  every  live  force  in  the  com- 
munity. Good  health  can  not  be  learned  out  of  text- 


EDUCATION:   THE  COMMON  HUMAN  TASK       185 

books;  it  can  be  secured  only  by  the  working  together 
of  doctors,  nurses,  parents  and  other  citizens,  all  com- 
bining to  promote  sanitation,  to  head  off  epidemics,  to 
teach  hygienic  living,  to  warn  and  safeguard  against 
every  abuse  of  this  great  gift  of  life.  A  high  standard 
of  morals  can  not  be  maintained  unless,  not  only  the 
schools,  but  the  churches,  the  whole  body  of  citizens 
and  especially  the  parents,  work  shoulder  to  shoulder 
to  keep  the  boys  and  girls  straight  and  to  protect  them 
from  every  needless  contamination  and  temptation. 
Efficiency  and  skill  can  not  be  developed  in  children 
unless  we  know  what  the  world's  standards  of  skill  and 
efficiency  are;  and  here  is  needed,  therefore,  the  active 
cooperation  of  men  and  women  who  are  doing  the 
world's  work:  employers,  employees,  merchants,  manu- 
facturers and  artisans. 

Information  and  knowledge  can  not  be  got  into  the 
pupil  until,  out  of  the  infinity  of  possible  facts,  are  intel- 
ligently selected  those  which  are  of  real  and  enduring 
use  to  that  particular  boy  or  girl,  as  an  individual. 
Social  responsibility  can  not  be  instilled  unless  the  child 
and  youth  are  brought  into  direct  contact  with  those 
whose  business  it  is  to  run  the  city  or  town.  Love  of 
beauty  can  not  be  aroused  unless  the  pupil  sees  pictures, 
hears  music  and  gets  genuine  inspiration  from  high- 
souled  men  and  women. 

This  is  the  underlying  reason  for  our  attempts  — 
sometimes  wise,  sometimes  unwise,  but  always  worth 
while  making  —  at  an  enrichment  and  expansion  of  the 
school  program;  this  is  the  origin  of  the  many  organ- 


1 86  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

izations  and  groups  that  are  bringing  earnest  persons 
together  in  a  serious  endeavor  to  help  the  public  schools ; 
this  is  the  real  foundation  for  the  widespread  interest 
in  vocational  education,  vocational  guidance,  social  edu- 
cation, moral  education,  and  all  the  other  new  forces  — 
or  old  forces  revived  —  in  modern  teaching.  Every  one 
of  these  things  has  its  foundation  in  our  new  under- 
standing of  what  education  really  means  and  in  our 
determination  to  do  what  we  can  to  make  the  next 
generation  roundly,  soundly  and  efficiently  trained. 

Since  education,  like  civilization,  is  always  in  process 
of  expansion,  it  is  impossible  to  lay  down  any  one  defin- 
itive school  program  along  these  newer  and  broader 
lines.  But  the  following,  as  the  result  of  placing  our- 
selves face  to  face  with  facts,  are  seen  to  be  some  of 
the  most  conspicuous  needs,  here  and  now,  in  practi- 
cally all  our  systems  of  public  education. 

We  need  better  health  conditions,  not  merely  in  mat- 
ters of  ventilation,  heating,  etc.,  but  in  lighting,  seating, 
freedom  of  movement,  exercise,  the  teaching  of  hygiene, 
the  control  of  minor  epidemics  (such  as  colds),  the 
following  of  pupils  into  their  homes,  in  order  to  give 
training  there  in  personal  and  domestic  hygiene,  in 
right  feeding,  clothing,  sleeping,  playing,  etc. 

We  need  more  moral  teaching,  —  not  instruction  in 
dogma,  but  a  ceaseless,  daily  exercise  in  the  great  ethical 
truths  which  underlie  all  sects;  and  especially  do  we 
need  a  sweeping  away,  both  in  city  and  in  country,  of 
all  sorts  of  needless  evils  and  temptations,  now  under- 
mining and  corrupting  youth. 


EDUCATION:   THE  COMMON  HUMAN  TASK       187 

We  need  much  more  training  for  real  service  in  the 
world,  —  not  merely  vocational  training  in  the  narrow 
sense  of  fitting  to  earn  a  livelihood,  but  such  a  rational 
and  thorough  training  of  the  senses,  of  the  head,  of  the 
hand  and  of  the  will,  that  every  average  youth  shall 
acquire  the  habit  of  doing  as  a  matter  of  course  what- 
ever comes  to  his  hand,  of  doing  it  thoroughly,  intelli- 
gently and  efficiently,  and  of  taking  pleasure  in  the 
mere  act  of  doing  it. 

We  need  a  better  understanding  of  what  is  and  what 
is  not  worth  while  to  learn,  so  that  so  much  of  the 
child's  time  may  not  be  wasted  in  memorizing  useless 
facts,  in  performing  foolish  "stunts"  and  in  merely 
marking  time. 

We  need  cooperation  between  the  employers  and  the 
school  so  that  as  the  boy  and  girl  approach  the  time 
when  they  must  leave  school,  the  two  agencies  shall 
work  together  in  leading  the  youth  gradually  and  wisely 
out  of  school  education  into  work  education,  through 
some  system  of  continuation  or  part-time  instruction. 

We  need  intelligent  training  for  our  boys  and  girls 
in  the  meaning  and  in  the  practice  of  home-life,  for, 
whatever  else  they  may  be,  the  vast  majority  of  them 
will  be  fathers  and  mothers,  and  unless  they  are  intelli- 
gent parents  and  efficient  homemakers,  their  children 
will  be  frightfully  handicapped  and  the  community  un- 
warrantably burdened.  To  get  this  training  we  need 
the  closest  friendship  and  understanding  between  the 
home  and  the  school. 

We  nee4  more  "follow  up  "  work  V"ftl  Knirr  ™ 


1 88  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

so  that  the  school  shall  not  lose  sight  of  them  until  they 
are  started,  and  well  started,  on  the  right  road  towards 
earning  a  living  not  only  sufficient  for  early  marriage 
and  the  bringing  up  of  a  family,  but  also  permitting  of 
skill,  initiative,  interest  and  growth. 

We  need  more  and  earlier  training  in  the  sense  of 
social  responsibility,  so  that,  from  the  beginning  of  his 
school  life,  the  child  shall  realize  what  he  owes  to  civil- 
ization in  general  and  to  his  own  community  in  par- 
ticular, and  shall  be  filled  with  the  ambition  to  pay  back 
that  debt  by  rendering  effective  service  to  his  town  and 
state. 

Finally,  we  need  to  arouse  appreciation  of  the  beau- 
tiful not  merely  as  it  appears  objectively  in  art  and 
subjectively  in  character,  but  as  it  assumes  the  homelier 
forms  of  neatness,  order  and  tidiness,  as  it  takes  shape  in 
the  "  clean  up  and  paint  up  "  slogans  of  the  day. 

How  are  we  to  get  these  things  which,  we  must  all 
agree,  are  essential  if  the  child  is  to  come  into  his  right- 
ful heritage  as  a  useful  and  happy  citizen?     We  shall 
not  get  them  through  any  miracle,  but  only  through 
hard  study  to  find  out  what  education  really  means  and 
through  hard  personal  work  to  bring  about  true  school 
reform.     And  we  shall  not  get  them  at  all  unless  every 
one  of  us  does  his  part,  be  it  large  or  small,  in  making 
all  the  conditions  as  far  as  possible  right  in  our  own  %  • 
community.     We  are  all,  perforce,  educators,  and  unless  I 
out  what  ills  pail  ill  eillic'aLlon  is  an'd  ^ 
does  that  part  as  well  as  he  reasonaoiy  can  we  shaii  get  1 
practically  nowhere.  "-s. 


EDUCATION:   THE  COMMON  HUMAN  TASK         189 


Much  of  our  school  machinery  is  ™itwnrn  •  1iVo  on- 
lightened  manufacturers  we  must  have  the  courage  jo 
"igrrap"  it  and  get  new,.  The  correlations  between  the 
school  and  the  home,  the  school  and  industry,  the  school 
and  citizenship,  the  school  and  real  life  are  in  most  cases 
far  from  satisfactory;  everything  possible  must  be  done 
to  bring  about  those  correlations  so  absolutely  essential 
to  effective  education  and  efficient  living.  A  large  part 
of  the  process  of  education  is  carried  on  wholly  outside 
the  school  :  in  the  homes,  on  the  streets,  in  the  factories  ; 
we  citizens  must  do  all  we  can  to  make  those  homes 
intelligent,  those  streets  morally,  as  well  as  physically, 
clean,  those  factories  wise  to  their  own  best  interests 
in  the  enlightened  handling  of  the  human  forces  which 
they  use. 

Most  of  the  evil  and  misfortune  in  the  world,  which 
we  are  at  such  incredible  expense  in  trying  to  palliate 
through  prisons,  hospitals,  asylums  and  other  so-called 
remedies,  need  not  exist  at  all,  were  we  to  use  educa- 
tion, as  it  should  be  used,  to  prevent  incompetence,  im- 
morality, crime,  pauperism,  disease  and  premature 
death.  But  education  will  not  be  the  great  force  that 
it  should  be,  to  keep  children  well,  to  preserve  them 
morally  sound,  to  endow  them  with  the  ardor  of  good 
citizenship,  to  lift  their  eyes  out  of  the  gutters  and  fix 
them  on  the  stars,  until  the  schools  are  wholly  divorced 
from  politics,  until  thoroughly  trained  teachers  are  given 
substantially  untrammelled  opportunity  really  to  edu- 
cate, until  classes  are  made  small  enough  for  the  teacher 
to  know  and  to  train  each  child  as  an  individual,  until 


HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

there  is  just  as  much  attention  given  to  what  the  pupil 
does  out  of  school  as  in,  until  the  home  and  the  school 
work  hand  in  hand  to  keep  the  child  sound  and  strong, 
and  until  every  one  of  us  realizes  that  he  or  she  is 
personally  responsible  for  what  this  generation  and  this 
community  do  for  the  training  of  their  boys  and  girls. 


EDUCATION   FOR    EARNING 


T  .T*rrr>T  AT  cR1^   that  GnH  rmiSt  loVP  t*1? 


mon  people^else  he  wmilH  not  hay**  mad**  gr> 
tEemL     Whether  or  not  that  be  so,  without  thfl 
common  people  industry,    democracy   and   civilization 
itself,  would  disappear. 

Only  the  uncommon  man  gets  into  the  pages  of  his- 
tory; but  it  is  the  common  man  who  makes  history.  It 
is  the  one  youth  in  a  hundred  who  acquires  leadership; 
it  is  the  ninety-nine  other  youths  who  are  shaping  the 
channels  in  which  that  leadership  must  run.  It  is  the 
scattered  thousands  who  make  the  shining  crust  of  cul- 
ture upon  the  loaf  of  life;  it  is  the  solid  millions  who 
make  up  the  body  and  substance  of  that  loaf. 

Therefore,  education  is  not  mainly  concerned  with 
the  industrial  leaders,  the  men  of  the  professions,  the 
exceptional  individuals  who,  by  force  of  favorable  cir- 
cumstances or  of  their  own  personality,  are  bound  to 
make  their  way.  It  is  concerned,  rather,  with  the  busi- 
ness man's  clerk,  the  professional  man's  office  boy,  the 
manufacturer's  green  hand  who,  numerous  as  the  sands, 
hold  the  very  life  of  the  community  in  their  grimy  hands. 
They  are  the  future  citizens,  they  are  the  future  voters, 
they  are  the  future  workers,  and  as  they  do  their  duty, 
as  they  vote  and  as  they  work,  so  the  United  States  will 
rise  or  fall. 


i92  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

This  typical  urchin,  of  whom  there  are  millions  upon 
millions  and  of  whose  collective  or  individual  existence 
the  business  man  and  the  statesman  are  scarcely  aware, 
is,  nevertheless,  the  final  arbiter  of  all  their  fates. 
Yet  with  his  education  for  the  duty  of  settling  the  coun- 
try's future,  few  of  us  condescend  to  be  concerned. 
Neither  do  we  seriously  trouble  ourselves  that  he  is 
pulled  out  of  school,  or  leaps  out  of  that  place  of  un- 
pleasant tasks,  on  the  stroke  of  fourteen  years  or,  if  his 
parents  are  not  averse  to  perjury,  a  year  or  two  before 
fourteen. 

The  boy  is  removed  from  school  in  order,  ostensibly,  to 
supplement  the  family  income,  and  he  is  generally  glad 
to  come  out  because  it  gives  him  greater  freedom  and 
at  least  a  percentage  of  his  earnings  to  spend  on  ciga- 
rettes and  "  movies."  Moreover,  neither  he  nor  his 
parents  see  (and  no  more  can  most  of  us  perceive)  much 
relation  between  the  school  work  that  he  is  giving  up 
and  the  life  work  that  he  is  going  to  do. 

Certainly,  for  whatever  he  undertakes,  —  except  it  be 
the  duties  of  a  clerk,  —  his  schooling  has  given  him  no 
direct  preparation.  This  would  be  of  minor  conse- 
quence had  that  school  given  him  any  indirect  prepara- 
tion, had  it  given  him,  that  is,  those  qualities  and 
aptitudes,  those  powers  of  mind  and  hand,  those  funda- 
mentals of  character  which  would  enable  him  to  take 
up  any  piece  of  work  with  that  grip  and  that  self-reliance 
which  are  bound  to  lead  any  boy  and  youth  having 
them, '  regardless  of  his  book  knowledge,  to  genuine 
success. 


EDUCATION  FOR  EARNING  193 

For  good  reasons,  such  as  duty  to  a  widowed  mother, 
or  for  bad  reasons,  such  as  a  desire  to  keep  up  with  the 
gang,  the  boy  is  anxious  to  earn  as  much  as  possible; 
therefore  he  seeks  what  will  pay  him  most  at  first,  re- 
gardless of  the  future  and  of  the  opportunity  to  make  a 
real  career.  So  he  secures,  generally,  a  job  which  leads 
nowhere  and  in  which  he  is  more  than  likely  to  go  to 
economic  and  spiritual  waste.  Moreover,  if  the  boy 
does  happen  to  get  into  an  occupation  offering  chances 
for  advancement,  in  most  instances  he  has  no  oppor- 
tunity really  to  learn  that  trade  excepting  as  he  may 
pick  it  up  in  the  intervals  of  routine  work.  Therefore, 
in  the  valuable  years  between  fourteen  and  seventeen, 
when  the  boy  ought  to  be  laying  the  foundations  for  his 
future  career,  he,  as  a  rule,  is  learning  practically 
nothing  excepting  idleness,  shirking  and  vice ;  and  when 
the  time  comes  that  he  might  be  regularly  employed  in 
some  effective  industry,  he  is,  to  use  a  vulgar  phrase, 
industrially  rotten  before  he  is  industrially  ripe. 

The  average  boy  drifts  into  a  blind  lane  in  this  way, 
not  only  because  he  has  no  one  to  show  him  the  folly 
and  loss  of  it,  but  for  the  more  weighty  reason  that 
he  is  not  able  to  pick  and  choose.  He  comes  into  the 
industrial  market  at  fourteen,  —  or  even  at  sixteen  or 
eighteen,  —  with  a  pair  of  hands  totally  untrained,  with 
a  mind  most  imperfectly  developed,  with  no  technical 
skill  and  with  an  unformed,  or  deformed,  character. 

While  the  average  business  man  seems  utterly  indif- 
ferent to  any  particular  wasted  urchin,  he  is  far  from 
being  indifferent  to  the  waste  of  urchins  as  a  whole. 


194  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

On  the  contrary,  he  is  highly  exercised  about  it  and  has 
very  decided  views  as  to  the  kind  of  training  that  those 
urchins  ought  to  have,  though  he  is  even  vaguer  than  the 
schoolmasters  as  to  how  that  kind  of  training  is  to  be 
given.  And  the  business  man  and  manufacturer  has 
those  decided  views  because  he  is  confronted  every  min- 
ute with  the  problem  of  waste.  He  has  to  fill  his  bins 
with  ten  times  as  much  coal  as,  theoretically,  he  needs, 
because  about  nine  tenths  of  that  coal  does  absolutely 
no  work.  He  has  to  stock  up  with  many  more  machines 
than,  theoretically,  he  requires,  because  of  the  losses 
through  friction,  breakage  and  general  inefficiency;  he 
has  to  buy  much  more  raw  material  than,  theoretically, 
he  should  use,  because  of  the  many  chances  for  loss  in 
passing  from  the  raw  to  the  finished  state.  Science  and 
skill  can  do  much  to  overcome  these  losses ;  but  the  larg- 
est source  of  waste  is  one  that  cannot  be  accurately 
reckoned,  is  one  that  no  science  within  the  mill  can  do 
much  to  stop,  is  one  that  if  he  were  able  really  to  cal- 
culate it,  would  be  perfectly  staggering;  —  and  that  is 
the  waste  of  human  energy  and  life.  The  main  sources 
of  this  human  waste  are,  of  course,  physical  weakness, 
involving  absence  through  sickness  and  loss  through 
early  death  of  men  who  have  been  years  in  training; 
carelessness,  through  which  one  man  may  stop  a  great 
plant  for  days;  indifference  and  shirking,  which  neces- 
sitate the  employment  of  a  large  force  of  foremen  to 
keep  the  men  up  to  even  a  moderate  degree  of  efficiency ; 
and  above  all,  ignorance.  Not  so  much  ignorance  of  the 
work  that  the  man  is  supposed  to  do,  as  ignorance  on  his 


EDUCATION  FOR  EARNING  195 

own  part  of  how  to  utilize  his  physical  and  mental 
strength.  We  are  so  accustomed  to  human  inefficiency 
that  we  fail  to  appreciate  how  little  we  actually  get  out 
of  a  man  in  comparison  with  what  he  is  really  capable, 
were  he  rightly  trained,  of  accomplishing. 

The  enlightened  business  man  who  is  doing  every- 
thing to  perfect  his  machinery  and  to  stop  his  material 
leaks  and  losses  is  practically  helpless  in  the  presence 
of  this  human  waste.  It  is  almost  impossible  to  reform 
men  who  come  to  him,  as  a  rule,  only  after  they  are 
grown  and  after  their  habits,  — or  want  of  good  habits, 
—  have  become  ingrained.  He  turns,  therefore,  to  the 
schools  and  asks  more  and  more  loudly  that  they  give 
him  boys  and  young  men  who  have,  first  and  foremost, 
mental,  moral  and  physical  good-health;  who  have,  sec- 
ondly, efficiency  —  that  is  such  coordination  between 
head  and  hands,  such  self-poise,  such  self-reliance,  such 
self-respect  that  the  man  does  what  he  has  to  do  with 
the  least  real  exertion,  with  the  least  waste  of  time  and 
material,  and  with  precision,  finish  and  sureness  of 
result.  And,  thirdly,  he  asks  that  the  school  give  him, 
in  his  workmen,  vim,  go,  hustle,  loyalty,  or  any  other 
word  which  expresses  the  attitude  of  the  man  who  likes 
to  work  and  who  knows,  —  as  only  the  well-trained  man 
can  appreciate  —  that  the  greatest  happiness  in  life 
comes  from  work  effectively  and  thoroughly  done. 

The  complaint  of  the  average  man  that  the  schools 
of  to-day  are  not  giving  a  good  training  in  the  common 
branches  is  quite  without  foundation.  So  far  as  con- 
cerns the  gymnastics  of  the  mind  and  those  tools  of 


196  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

education  which  we  call  the  three  R's,  the  boy  of  to-day 
is  far  ahead  of  his  grandfather  and  is  considerably  in 
advance  of  his  father.  The  real  difficulty,  and  one  of 
the  reasons  why  boys  and  girls  seem  to-day  inadequately 
trained,  is  because  modern  life  demands  infinitely  more 
than  it  used  to  even  twenty  years  ago.  The  trouble  is 
not  with  what  the  school  does  to  the  boy ;  it  is  with  what 
the  world  demands  of  the  boy  after  he  leaves  school.  It 
is  like  the  congestion  of  freight,  a  few  years  ago,  in  the 
Middle  West.  The  shippers  made  vigorous  protest  to 
the  traffic  managers,  who  met  and  gravely  replied  that 
the  trouble  was  due,  not  to  a  shortage  of  cars,  but  to 
an  excess  of  products. 

The  responsibility  for  this  inadequacy  of  the  schools 
does  not  lie  with  the  teachers,  who  are  doing  fairly  well 
with  the  means  at  their  command;  it  certainly  does  not 
lie  with  the  children,  who  are  helpless  in  the  matter. 
The  responsibility  lies  with  the  citizens  who  have  seen 
the  enormous  development  of  industries,  who  have  seen 
the  increased  demands  upon  everybody,  young  and  old, 
who  know  that  life  is  rushing  at  automobile  speed,  and 
yet  who  do  not  furnish  moral  and  financial  support  to 
those  schools  and  to  those  communities  which  are  seri- 
ously trying  to  fit  boys  and  girls  for  these  new  conditions. 

The  original  conception  of  education,  of  course,  was 
that  of  a  process  for  maintaining  class  distinctions. 
Men  were  to  receive  the  special  education  of  the  priest 
or  knight  in  order  that  as  holy  men  and  gentlemen,  they 
might  be  kept  apart  from  the  vulgar  herd.  It  mattered 
little  what  those  privileged  classes  studied,  so  long  as  it 


EDUCATION  FOR  EARNING  197 

gave  them  erudition  of  which  those  beneath  them  could 
not  even  dream.  Out  of  the  caste  idea  of  education  grew 
the  so-called  culture  theory  which,  carried  to  an  extreme, 
is  embodied  in  the  Oxford  professor  of  higher  mathemat- 
ics who  thanked  God  that  he  had  never  taught  his  stu- 
dents anything  of  which  they  could  make  the  slightest  use. 

When,  by  the  spreading  of  democratic  aspirations,  the 
caste  theory  became  impossible  and  the  culture  theory 
more  or  less  untenable,  there  arose  the  informational 
theory  of  education,  the  idea  so  industriously  promul- 
gated in  the  late  eighteenth  and  early  nineteenth  centu- 
ries that  if  a  man  be  only  instructed  in  right  ideas  he  will 
be  wise  and  good.  Out  of  this  notion  grew  the  schools 
of  the  Gradgrinds  in  which  helpless  infants  and  unhappy 
youth  alike  were  gorged  with  facts. 

Next,  as  a  sort  of  child  of  the  culture  and  informa- 
tional theories  appeared  the  doctrine  of  disciplinary  edu- 
cation, the  hallucination  that  the  mind  needs  to  be  kept 
in  condition  by  doing  hard,  dry  and  disagreeable  tasks, 
very  much  as  one's  teeth  are  to  be  kept  firm  and  white 
by  gnawing  bones  and  crusts. 

The  present  chaotic  and  fast-crumbling  notions  (they 
cannot  be  dignified  as  principles)  have  grown  out  of 
these  three  ideas  concerning  education :  the  idea  of  it  as 
a  means  of  perpetuating  caste,  the  idea  of  it  as  a  pur- 
veyor of  information,  the  idea  of  it  as  a  gymnastic  for 
the  mind.  The  coming  school,  however,  the  only  kind 
of  school  which  can  meet  modern  conditions  and  needs, 
while  not  rejecting  or  neglecting  culture,  information 
or  formal  discipline,  will  be  based  upon  the  principle  of 


198  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

giving  the  child  the  use  of  himself,  of  developing  in  him 
to  the  fullest  his  innate  powers,  of  making  him  an  ef- 
ficient social,  industrial,  political  and  moral  force. 

Culture  is  a  desirable  and  essential  goal  of  all  educa- 
tion ;  but  to  strive  primarily  for  culture  is  to  produce  a 
plant  all  leaves  and  flowers,  without  any  roots  to  give 
it  nourishment.  Facts  are  a  fundamental  basis  of  all 
education,  but  to  pursue  facts  as  facts  is  to  be  like  Solo- 
mon John  in  the  Peterkin  Papers,  who  conscientiously 
read  the  encyclopedia  until  he  got  to  Xerxes,  and  then, 
his  book-mark  slipping  out,  had  to  begin  again  at  A. 
Formal  discipline  is  a  necessary  part  of  all  youthful 
training,  but  to  keep  a  child  at  a  task  simply  because  it 
is  disagreeable  is  like  making  him  pull  chest  weights 
without  ever  giving  him  opportunity  to  use  his  muscles 
in  real  work  or  play.  We  want  these  things  in  our 
scheme  of  education,  but  we  want  them  simply  as  agen- 
cies in  the  producing  of  power.  Power  should  be  the 
aim  of  the  whole  educational  process.  Power  to  think 
straight,  power  to  work  effectively,  power  to  control 
one's  self  and  to  influence  others,  power  to  add  some- 
thing to  the  sum  of  human  wealth  and  happiness,  —  that 
is  what  makes  a  man,  and  it  is  this  sort  of  power  which 
the  schools  must  develop,  to  a  greater  degree  than  most 
of  them  now  do,  if  they  are  to  furnish  genuine  men  and 
women  to  the  world.  The  watchword  in  all  business 
and  manufacturing  to-day  is  efficiency.  The  brains  of 
inventors,  the  wisdom  of  managers,  the  powers  of  indus- 
trial captains  are  focused  upon  securing  the  greatest 
product  with  the  least  expenditure.  Similarly  in  the 


EDUCATION  FOR  EARNING  199 

business  world.  The  trusts  were  formed,  not  to  cheat 
and  oppress  the  people,  but  to  avoid  wastes  in  buying 
and  selling,  to  save  needless  duplication.  The  great 
department  stores  were  established,  not  because  Mr. 
Wanamaker  wanted  to  sell  automobiles  and  pins  under 
the  same  roof,  but  because  by  putting  everything  under 
a  single  management,  the  efficiency  of  the  establishment 
could  be  greatly  increased. 

Carlyle,  in  his  savage  way,  once  declared  that  there 
are  —  I  forget  how  many  —  millions  of  persons  in  Eng- 
land, "  mostly  fools."  This  was  the  verdict,  of  course, 
of  a  chronic  dyspeptic ;  but  there  is  an  appalling  number 
of  fools  in  the  world,  —  not  fools  in  the  ordinary  mean- 
ing of  that  unpleasant  word ;  but  fools  in  that  they  never 
count  for  anything  in  the  progress  of  humanity,  never 
are  of  any  real  use  to  themselves  or  to  anyone  else. 
These  unhappy  persons  are  not  naturally  fools;  neither 
are  they  fools  from  choice;  they  are  simply  called  fools 
because  they  are  inefficient.  For  its  own  sake  as  well 
as  for  theirs,  the  world  should  take  these  hundreds  of 
thousands  out  of  the  fool  class  and  put  them  into  the 
effective  class  by  deliberately  and  wisely  educating  them 
for  personal  and  industrial  efficiency. 

Industrial  efficiency  is  fundamental  to  the  real  pros- 
perity of  the  country  as  a  whole,  and  to  that  of  every 
mill-hand,  mechanic,  farmer,  craftsman,  merchant,  pro- 
fessional man  and  other  citizen  in  the  United  States. 
It  is  vital  to  our  domestic  progress,  to  our  foreign  trade, 
to  our  national  welfare,  that  slipshod  workmen,  ignorant 
mechanics,  shirking  clerks,  incompetent  public  servants, 


200  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

and  "  faking "  professional  men  should  no  longer  be 
tolerated  or  excused. 

It  is  essential  to  the  maintenance  of  a  democracy  that 
the  mediaeval  distinctions  between  the  "  clerk  "  who  does 
not  soil  his  hands  and  the  "  laborer  "  who  does,  should 
be  broken  down ;  and  that  youth  should  be  brought  up  to 
respect  manual  labor  and  industrial  processes  by  having 
had  some  experience  in  both. 

It  is  educationally  necessary  that  boys  and  girls  be 
taught  to  use  their  hands  as  well  as  their  heads,  and 
that  —  whether  they  are  to  make  use  of  them  or  not  — 
they  be  made  acquainted  with,  and  more  or  less  pro- 
ficient in,  those  industrial  ideas  and  processes  which  lie 
at  the  very  roots  of  modern  life. 

If  this  American  experiment  in  democratic  govern- 
ment—  an  experiment  never  before  undertaken  on  so 
huge  a  scale  —  is  to  succeed,  we  must  breed  a  more 
active  and  responsible  citizenship.  In  doing  that,  how- 
ever, we  must  recognize  that  the  essential  foundation  of 
good  citizenship  is  the  ability  to  earn  a  living  ample  to 
support  a  family,  and  to  earn  it  with  that  sense  of  satis- 
faction which  comes  only  from  a  knowledge  of  being 
competent  to  what  one  undertakes.  The  urgent  demand 
of  to-day,  therefore,  is  for  a  vocational  education  which 
shall  give  this  sense  of  competence  to  that  more  than 
nine  tenths  of  the  people  who  must  earn  their  living, 
directly  or  indirectly,  through  some  form  of  mechanical, 
agricultural  or  domestic  work. 

Consequently  the  educational  authorities,  using  that 
term  in  a  pretty  broad  sense,  need  to  make  provision  for 


EDUCATION  FOR  EARNING  201 

the  following  groups:  (1)  for  youth  in  general  who, 
whatever  their  future  station  or  occupation,  need  to 
have  some  first-hand  knowledge  of  the  principles  and 
processes  which  lie  at  the  basis  of  all  production;  (2) 
for  those  youth  who  are  to  be  the  industrial  captains,  as 
engineers,  directors  or  administrators  of  large  produc- 
tive enterprises;  (3)  for  those  youth  who  are  to  be  fore- 
men, superintendents  and  other  minor  officers  of  those 
same  enterprises;  and  (4)  for  that  great  host  of  boys 
and  girls  who,  by  limitation  of  mind  or  of  capacity  are 
certain  always  to  remain  in  the  rank  and  file  of  industry, 
but  upon  whose  competence,  skill  and  economic  faithful- 
ness the  whole  success  of  modern  industry  depends. 

The  educator  need  concern  himself  very  little,  how- 
ever, with  the  training  of  group  two,  being  sure  that 
in  the  nature  of  things  the  education  of  the  industrial 
captains  will  always  be  looked  after  by  those  officers 
themselves.  What  we  do  need  to  consider  is  the  train- 
ing of  the  other  three  groups,  and  in  this  inquiry  we 
need  give  consideration  only  to  groups  three  or  four, 
the  petty  officers  and  the  rank  and  file  of  industry,  since 
in  providi-ng  proper  education  for  them,  we  shall  be 
certain  to  furnish  a  type  of  training  which  will  meet 
also  the  needs  of  youth  in  general. 

As  a  necessary  basis,  not  only  for  this  industrial 
training,  but  also  for  intelligent  citizenship,  there  should 
be  woven  into  all  schooling,  from  the  earliest  years,  that 
training  of  the  senses,  that  practice  of  the  hands,  that 
feeling  of  social  responsibility  and  of  the  importance  of 
producing  something  useful  to  the  community,  that  abil- 


202  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

ity  to  work  with  others,  which  lie  at  the  foundation,  not 
only  of  efficient  industry,  but  also  of  effective  living. 
This  means  that  for  much  of  the  rote-work  and  text- 
book grinding  characteristic  of  the  school  of  to-day, 
there  must  be  substituted  a  large  and  varied  body  of  the 
right  sort  of  team-work  and  team-play,  of  hand  and  sense 
training,  of  sound  education  in  civic  duty,  personal  re- 
sponsibility and  social  responsibility,  of  good  manners 
and  right  morals,  of  what,  for  want  of  a  better  term, 
we  call  pre-vocational  training — training  in  those 
things  which  are  fundamental  to  efficiency  in  every  trade 
and  profession. 

All  this  cannot  be  done,  however,  in  the  school  day 
and  school  year  as  we  now  understand  them  or  in  the 
face  of  the  extremely  difficult  conditions  under  which 
most  teachers  are  compelled  to  work.  The  child's  edu- 
cation, —  certainly  from  the  beginning  of  his  tenth  to 
the  close  of  his  sixteenth  year —  is  the  main  business  of 
the  child's  life,  and  should  be  dealt  with,  therefore,  not 
in  an  occasional  and  haphazard  manner,  but  in  a  thor- 
oughly regular  and  businesslike  way. 

The  school,  at  least  during  the  seven  years  specified, 
should  control  practically  all  of  the  boy's  or  girl's  day- 
light time.  Theoretically,  the  parents  should  take  care 
of  the  manners  and  the  morals,  the  social  life  and  the 
vocational  preparation  of  the  children  for  whose  exist- 
ence they  are  responsible ;  but  as  a  matter  of  actual  fact, 
they  do  not  and  they  cannot.  Modern  life  is  too  com- 
plex, and  the  conditions  of  society  are  too  diverse*  for 
us  to  leave  this  most  important  of  all  businesses,  the- 


EDUCATION  FOR  EARNING  203 

oretically  to  the  care  of  the  home,  but  practically  to  the 
tender  mercies  of  the  street.  On  the  other  hand,  how- 
ever, it  is  absolutely  essential  to  such  an  enlarged  school 
activity,  that  the  parents,  both  as  individuals  and  as 
citizens,  should  take  a  much  more  intimate  and  more 
responsible  part  in  the  work  of  the  school  than  most  of 
them  now  do. 

If  the  school  is  to  assume  this  larger  task,  it  should  be 
a  matter,  not  of  five  hours  a  day,  five  days  in  the  week 
and  thirty-five  weeks  in  the  year.  School  should  be 
made  the  unremitting  and  really  moulding  influence 
upon  every  boy  and  girl  through  every  day  of  the  week 
and  substantially  every  week  in  the  year,  during  at  least 
the  important  years  from  nine  to  seventeen. 

This  greatly  extended  school  day  and  year  would  be 
worse  than  useless,  however,  were  it  merely  a  multipli- 
cation of  the  present  formal,  memoriter  and  not  seldom 
profitless  school  exercises.  On  the  contrary,  these  days 
and  years  should  be  ones  in  which  children,  in  groups 
of  not  over  twenty,  should  be  under  the  steady  super- 
vision of  teachers  competent  to  educate  and  enthusiastic 
in  educating  every  part  of  the  child :  his  body,  his  mind, 
his  senses,  his  capacities,  his  will,  his  character,  his  soul. 
A  large  part  of  this  extended  school  time  should  be 
given  to  games,  physical  exercise  and  group  work,  in 
which  the  muscles  and  senses  of  the  children  may  be 
fully  trained  and  developed;  another  large  part  should 
be  given  to  moral  training,  not  through  sectarian  teach- 
ing, but  through  self-active  work  and  play  tending  to 
strengthen  and  to  fortify  the  immature  will;  and  in  at 


204  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

least  the  last  four  of  the  seven  years  there  should  be 
an  increasing  emphasis  upon  fitting  the  child  vocation- 
ally, upon  preparing  him,  that  is,  to  take  his  due  part, 
as  an  active  and  competent  worker,  in  the  business  of 
the  community  in  which  he  lives. 

This  lengthening  of  the  school  day  would  abolish  that 
experience,  demoralizing  for  most  children,  which  we 
call  "home  lessons";  it  would  destroy  that  Moloch  — 
the  idling  on  street  corners  and  in  vacant  lots,  —  which 
is  devouring  so  many  of  our  boys  and  girls;  it  would, 
by  organizing  and  supervising  games  and  plays,  make 
them  what  they  should  be:  builders  up  of  body  and  of 
character;  and  it  would,  as  a  rule,  give  us  children,  at 
fifteen  or  sixteen,  who  are  ready  to  take  up  seriously, 
enthusiastically  and  effectively,  the  work  of  fitting 
themselves,  either  through  university  training,  or 
through  the  school  of  actual  experience,  for  wrhat  is  the 
main  business  in  life  of  substantially  every  man  and 
woman.  That  main  business  is  the  establishing,  before 
twenty-five  years  of  age,  of  a  genuine  family  life,  under 
which  the  efficient  father  shall  be  steadily  employed, 
under  which  the  competent  mother  shall  run  her  house 
economically  and  wisely,  under  which  the  children,  as 
they  arrive,  shall  be  amply  nurtured  and  properly  edu- 
cated, and  under  which  all  the  family  shall  appreciate 
and  shall  exercise  their  full  duty  as  responsible  citizens 
in  their  town  and  state. 

Such  a  school  life  will  be  long  in  coming,  for  it  will  be 
tremendously  expensive;  and  we  are  not  yet  civilized 
enough  to  realize  that  large  expenditures  in  childhood 


EDUCATION  FOR  EARNING  205 

save  enormously  greater  ones  in  after  life.  We  are  not 
yet  wise  enough  to  see  that,  however  expensive  the  right 
sort  of  schooling  may  be,  it  can  never  be  so  costly  as  are 
the  hospitals,  jails,  asylums  and  other  dreadful  buildings 
in  which  we  try  to  hide  our  social  mistakes  and  to  repair 
the  damage  which  society  inflicts  upon  so  many  of  its 
helpless  members  by  failing  properly  to  protect  and 
educate  them  in  their  early  and  adolescent  years. 

This  elaborated  education  will  be  long  in  arriving, 
moreover,  because  it  will  be  hard  to  overcome,  on  the 
one  hand,  our  conservatism,  which  cannot  imagine  any 
schooling  different  from  what  we  have  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  our  misplaced  tenderness,  which  makes  us 
think  we  are  giving  our  children  freedom  when  we  are 
really  condemning  most  of  them  to  aimless  idleness. 
But  we  can  take  a  long  step  towards  this  real,  thorough 
education  of  the  whole  boy  and  girl,  by  doing  all  that 
we  can  at  once  to  further  vocational  training:  that  is, 
to  further  the  wise  and  thorough  preparation  of  every 
child  and  youth  for  an  efficient,  and  therefore  a  happy, 
life  as  a  worker  and  as  a  citizen. 

What  are  the  essentials  of  such  an  efficient  and  happy 
life? 

First:  good  health.  This  means  physical  education 
from  the  very  beginning,  ordered  play,  a  trained  use  of 
all  the  muscles  and  senses,  hard,  regular  work  with  a 
definite  object,  fresh  air,  bodily  freedom  and  ceaseless 
activity. 

Secondly :  honesty,  self  control  and  self  respect.  This 
means  ceaseless  moral  training,  through  good  example, 


206  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

through  wise,  individual  talks  and  through  working  and 
playing  together  in  natural  groups  where  there  shall  be 
every  opportunity  to  exercise  and  strengthen  the  unde- 
veloped will. 

Thirdly:  a  sense  of  responsibility.  This  means  early 
and  continuous  training  of  a  sort  that  shall  make  the 
child  realize  that  he  has  no  use  or  right  in  the  world 
unless  he  eventually  becomes  a  competent  earner,  a  wise 
spender,  a  responsible  head  of  a  family  and  a  citizen  who 
does  not  shirk. 

Fourthly :  culture.  This  means  a  good  knowledge  of 
books  and  men,  of  the  earth  and  of  its  people,  of  music, 
pictures,  nature  and  all  the  rest  of  the  beautiful  things 
which  give  life  breadth  and  interest. 

And,  fifthly:  religion,  which  to  some  means  definite 
teaching  within  a  creed,  to  others,  indefinite  teaching 
outside  a  creed;  but  which  should  mean  to  all  a  looking 
beyond  one's  self  and  the  material  things  of  life,  up  to 
those  ideals  that  are  the  stars  to  which  our  wagons,  — 
be  they  little  go-carts  or  great  touring-cars,  —  must,  if 
we. are  to  get  anywhere,  be  firmly  hitched. 

To  come  back,  however,  to  earth.  The  school,  for  the 
child  under  ten  years  of  age,  need  not  be  very  different 
from  what  it  now  is,  provided  it  begin  early  enough  with 
the  right  sort  of  kindergarten,  provided  parents  and 
teachers  work  understandingly  together,  provided  the 
children  be  divided  into  groups  so  small  that  the  teacher 
may  know  and  really  develop  the  personality  of  every 
single  boy  and  girl,  and  provided  that  body-training 
and  will-training  have  a  much  larger  share  of  the  day 
than  mind-training  and  memory-training. 


EDUCATION  FOR  EARNING  207 

Beginning  with  the  tenth  year,  however,  education  for 
life  should  begin.  There  should  continue  to  be,  of 
course,  reading,  writing  and  arithmetic,  but  these  should 
be  used  as  means,  not  ends;  as  tools,  not  accomplish- 
ments. There  should  be  history  and  geography  and 
civics,  but  taught  in  such  a  way  as  to  bear  directly  upon 
the  life  and  experience  of  each  individual  child  in  his 
own  particular  community.  But  in  addition  to  all  these 
old  things  thus  made  over,  there  should  be  much  time 
given  to  playing  purposeful  games  and  making  useful 
products,  to  collecting  things  and  finding  out  about  them, 
to  working  and  playing  together  in  little  groups  and  in 
big  groups,  all  of  this  emphasizing  to  the  child  the  fact 
that  he  is  and  always  will  be  a  citizen  who  has  to  work 
with  other  citizens,  a  youth  whose  business  and  whose 
privilege  it  is  to  prepare  himself  for  the  noble  respon- 
sibilities of  a  competent,  free,  self-respecting  man  or 
woman,  the  father  or  the  mother  of  a  well-cared-for 
family. 

The  person  needing  immediately  to  be  dealt  with  is 
that,  at  present,  most  neglected  of  individuals,  the  boy 
or  girl  who  can  leave,  and  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases 
does  leave  school  at  fourteen.  That  child  now  emerges 
from  the  process  of  so-called  education  as  little  fitted, 
generally,  to  cope  with  the  world  and  the  world's  de- 
mands as  is  a  babe-in-arms. 

For  these  fourteen-year-old  children  there  need  to  be 
established  at  once,  wherever  it  is  possible,  at  least  four 
types  of  school :  ( 1 )  the  industrial  high  school  in  which 
the  whole  day  shall  be  given  to  preparation  for  efficiency ; 


2c8  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

(2)  the  apprentice  or  journeyman  school,  in  which  a 
youth  may  get,  though  under  far  better  conditions,  a 
training  similar  to  that  given  in  the  days  of  apprentice- 
ship; (3)  evening  industrial  schools,  combining  the 
opportunities  of  the  industrial  high  school  and  of  the 
apprentice  school,  but  with  more  flexible  conditions  as 
to  hours,  length  of  time  for  graduation,  conditions  of 
discipline,  etc. ;  and  (4)  part-time  schools,  in  which  the 
public  and  the  manufacturer  shall  cooperate  in  training 
those  youth  who  cannot  afford  the  time  necessary  to 
follow  a  course  in  an  industrial  high  or  in  an  apprentice 
school. 

The  industrial  high  school  should  have  running 
through  it  a  strong  backbone  of  humanistic  or  so-called 
culture  studies;  but  those  studies  should  be  in  no  way 
subservient  to  the  existing,  absurd  college  entrance  re- 
quirements ;  and  the  English,  the  economics,  the  history, 
the  ethics,  etc.,  should  be  simple,  direct  and  aimed  at 
the  real  problems  of  everyday  life.  Moreover,  this  indus- 
trial high  school  should  every  day  bring  theories  to  the 
test  of  practice  by  using  them  in  the  solving  of  imme- 
diate, real  problems.  To  that  end,  this  school  should 
have  extensive  and  thoroughly  equipped  shops  of  all 
kinds  wherein  would  be  epitomized,  so  far  as  practicable, 
all  industrial  processes,  and  wherein  the  problems  met 
with  would  be  real  and  the  results  arrived  at  would  be 
genuine. 

Such  a  school  as  this  is  beyond  the  reach  of  a  large 
majority  of  American  youth.  There  must  be  provided, 
therefore,  three  other  types:  (1)  the  part-time  school, 


EDUCATION  FOR  EARNING  209 

(2)  the  apprentice  school,  and  (3)  the  evening  school. 
The  apprentice  school  should  follow  very  closely  the 
lines  of  the  industrial  high  school,  but  should  have  a 
more  distinctively  trade  atmosphere.  Being  intended 
mainly  for  youth  who  have  determined  upon  their  life 
occupation,  the  course  should  be  intensive  and  should 
follow  as  nearly  as  possible  real  shop  conditions  as  to 
hours,  management,  etc.  For  this  reason  the  work  can 
be  crowded  into  a  shorter  period,  can  be  carried  into 
some  of  the  evening  hours,  and  should  occupy,  of  course, 
what  are  now  vacation  weeks. 

Evening  schools  should  not  be  carried  on  for  boys 
just  leaving  school,  or  for  boys  employed  throughout  the 
working  day.  They  should  be  planned  mainly  for 
adults  and  should  be  an  emergency  means,  so  to  speak, 
for  making  good  the  defects  in  training  of  those  who, 
because  of  age  or  responsibility,  cannot  give  up  their 
regular  daily  tasks,  and  yet  who  need  better  fitting  for 
those  tasks  or  wider  training  for  positions  of  larger 
responsibility. 

Evening  schools,  therefore,  because  they  must  meet  a 
wide  range  of  needs  —  from  the  requirements  of  the 
immigrant  who,  skilled  in  his  special  occupation,  is  igno- 
rant of  English,  to  those  of  the  man  who  needs  but  a 
little  added  training  to  enable  him  to  step  out  of  the 
ranks  of  the  led  into  the  ranks  of  the  leaders,  —  should 
make  provision  for  a  broad  range  of  subjects  and  should 
be  as  flexible  as  possible  in  matters  of  regulations  and 
attendance.  And  because  they  are  mainly  supplemen- 
tary means  of  teaching,  they  should  make  as  much  use 


210  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

as  possible  of  existing  educational  agencies.  In  other 
words,  they  should  be,  to  the  fullest  extent,  grafted 
upon  schools  already  established,  from  the  primary  pub- 
lic schools  whose  rooms  and  forces  may  be  utilized  to 
teach  English  to  adult  immigrants,  up  to  the  laboratories 
and  lecture  rooms  of  colleges  and  schools  of  technology, 
which  should  be  open  to  everyone  who  can  make  good 
use  of  their  facilities. 

The  best  way,  however,  of  providing  that  industrial 
education  for  which  so  many  individuals  and  communi- 
ties are  clamoring  is  through  the  part-time  school.  Just 
what  form  that  combination  of  schooling  and  working 
shall  take  depends  largely  upon  local  conditions  and  the 
nature  of  the  business  or  industry;  but  this  system, 
under  which  the  youth  beyond  fourteen  spends  part  of 
his  working  day  in  some  paying  occupation  and  part  of 
it  in  school  studies  bearing  directly  upon  that  special 
business  or  industry,  meets  better  than  any  other  the 
main  difficulties  of  the  vocational  education  problem. 

The  part-time  plan  overcomes  one  of  the  most  serious 
obstacles  in  the  way  of  vocational  education,  that  of  cost. 
Where  the  manufacturer  or  merchant  provides  the  in- 
dustrial plant  and  the  specialized  instruction  for  the 
so-called  practical  side  of  the  teaching,  he  takes  care  of 
the  most  serious  difficulty;  and  he  can  afford  to  do  so 
since  the  ultimate  benefit  accrues  to  him. 

Part-time  education  overcomes  the  objection  made  by 
parents  —  and,  unfortunately,  too  often  justified  —  that 
they  cannot  afford  to  keep  children  under  instruction 
after  fourteen. 


EDUCATION  FOR  EARNING  211 

It  overcomes  the  unwillingness  of  many  children, 
especially  boys,  to  remain  in  school  after  the  legal  limit 
of  school-age. 

It  vitalizes  the  school-work  by  giving  it  a  definite  and 
worth-while  job  to  do,  bringing  new  meaning  into  edu- 
cation for  both  teacher  and  taught. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  illuminates  the  job  by  showing 
the  dependence  of  every  industrial  or  commercial  process 
upon  sound  training  in  certain  fundamental  school 
things. 

And,  finally,  part-time  schooling  establishes  new,  inti- 
mate and  solid  relations  between  the  schools  and  the 
community,  emphasizing  to  each  of  them  their  interde- 
pendence, and  giving  each  of  them  new  meaning  in  the 
eyes  of  the  other. 


STANDARDIZATION 

SOME  makes  of  motor  car  have  been  so  thoroughly 
standardized  that  they  almost  put  themselves  together 
and,  so  the  humorists  tell  us,  will  travel  fifteen  miles 
with  no  other  motive  power  than  their  reputation.  That 
kind  of  standardization  is  essential  to  the  making  of 
popular-priced  machines,  but  is  fatal  to  the  making  of 
efficient  men.  A  conspicuous  proof  of  this  fact  is  found 
in  the  breaking  down,  under  the  stern  test  of  war,  of  the 
most  thoroughly  standardized  nation  that  the  world  has 
ever  seen. 

The  fundamental  difference  between  the  machine  and 
the  man  is  that  the  latter  thinks;  and,  when  thinking  is 
standardized,  the  result  is  not  a  citizen,  but  a  sheep. 
Education  should  make  men  not  alike,  but  different; 
for  it  is  only  the  "  different  "  man,  the  man  with  individ- 
uality, who  really  counts.  Education  is  practically  use- 
less unless  it  stimulates  ambition  and  develops  charac- 
ter, unless  it  cranks,  so  to  speak,  the  intellectual  and 
moral  engine  so  vigorously  that  the  individual,  thus  set 
going,  will  make  for  himself  a  satisfactory  career.  A 
standardized  education  does  not  stimulate  thought;  it 
stifles  thought,  for  it  stuffs  the  child's  head  with  cut-and- 
dried  opinions  and  ready-made  facts  instead  of  stirring 


STANDARDIZATION  213 

up  that  mind  to  arrive  at  its  own  opinions  and  to  find 
out  facts  for  itself. 

The  sole  advantage  of  a  uniform  system  of  education 
is  that  it  is  cheap  and  easy.  Democracy  requires  that 
millions  of  children  in  the  United  States  shall  every 
year  be  schooled;  and  we  taxpayers,  who  ought  to  want 
to  do  it  as  well  as  we  can,  really  endeavor  to  do  it  as 
cheaply  as  we  can.  Seeking  cheapness,  we  have  learned 
that  the  secret  of  schooling  children  inexpensively  is  that 
long  ago  discovered  by  the  makers  of  cheap  machines: 
standardization. 

Therefore,  we  put  our  school  children  through  a  sub- 
stantially unvaried  routine,  with  arbitrary  methods  of 
teaching  and  uniform  textbooks.  Few  children  really 
fit  into  the  system ;  the  methods  do  not  result  as,  theoret- 
ically, they  should;  and  the  textbooks  seem  to  benefit 
nobody  except  the  stupid  teacher  who  uses  and  the  far 
from  stupid  man  who  makes  them.  Moreover  the  sys- 
tem crushes  out  individuality,  squeezes  growing  minds 
and  lops  off  developing  character,  leaving  many  children 
for  the  rest  of  their  lives  mentally  and  morally  maimed. 
Nevertheless,  they  have  been  schooled,  and — greatest 
of  all  triumphs  of  machine  efficiency — the  process  has 
been  carried  out  at  the  lowest  possible  cost  per  capita. 

Almost  anybody  can  be  a  teacher  when  he  has  only  to 
follow  a  carefully  arranged  schedule,  under  which  no 
attention  need  be  paid  to  the  special  characteristics  of 
the  individual  child.  Therefore,  elementary  school 
teachers  can  be  secured  for  wages  lower  even  than  those 
of  pick-and-shovel  men;  and,  since  the  wages  also  are 


214  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

standardized,  there  need  be  no  invidious  distinction 
between  the  dummy  who  hears  recitations  and  marks 
them  according  to  rule  and  the  genuine  teacher  who, 
appreciating  that  to  educate  is  to  develop  a  human  soul 
through  training  a  human  brain  to  think,  tries  to  teach 
accordingly. 

The  greatest  advantage  of  standardization,  however, 
from  the  point  of  view  of  cheapness,  is  that,  through  its 
aid,  fifty  or  even  sixty  children  can  be  schooled  by  a 
single  teacher.  By  dividing  this  preposterous  number 
into  squads,  she  can  hear  one  batch  of  children  recite 
from  the  prescribed  book  the  preappointed  lesson  in 
arithmetic,  while  a  second  batch  is  preparing  its  cut- 
and-dried  lesson  in  geography,  and  a  third  is  doing 
"  busy  work,"  that  polite  school  phrase  for  killing  time. 

All  this,  however,  is  not  education  at  all.  It  is  school- 
drill  of  a  very  meager  and  unenlightened  sort.  Of 
course,  it  is  not  wholly  without  value.  Repressive  dis- 
cipline, learning  things  by  rote  and  marching  about  with 
fifty  or  sixty  other  children,  all  have  their  useful  place 
in  education;  but  it  should  be  a  very  minor  place.  In 
most  schools,  however,  this  insignificant  part  of  educa- 
tion is  about  all  that  the  pupils  get. 

It  is  true  that  they  learn  to  read,  write  and  cipher  after 
a  fashion,  and  that  some  of  the  facts  which  the  teacher 
tries  to  drive  into  their  heads  stick.  But  the  members 
of  one  of  these  overgrown  classes  are  seldom  required 
really  to  think ;  they  are  almost  never  taught  how  to  use 
their  minds,  their  hands,  their  senses  or  their  wills ;  and, 
far  from  stimulating  initiative,  the  usual  public  school 


STANDARDIZATION  215 

does  all  it  possibly  can  to  kill  initiative,  for  it  practically 
forbids  the  pupil  to  study  things,  or  plan  things  or  work 
things  out  for  himself. 

As  to  the  development  of  character,-  which  should  be 
the  chief  aim  of  education,  what  can  a  teacher  who  must 
keep  forty  or  fifty  children  quiet  find  out  about  the  needs 
and  aspirations,  the  thoughts  and  visions,  of  any  one  of 
them?  She  cannot  even  learn  what  the  boy  or  girl  is 
best  fitted  to  do  in  life,  for  that  takes  time,  patience  and 
quiet  conversations  with  the  pupil,  his  parents  and  pos- 
sible employers.  If  there  is  no  time  to  do  this,  which 
concerns  merely  the  bread  and  butter  side  of  life,  how 
much  less  time  is  there  to  get  at  those  mental  and  moral 
characteristics  which  make  John  absolutely  unlike  Henry 
and  a  knowledge  of  which  is  essential  to  his  real  edu- 
cation and  right  development. 

So  long  as  schooling  is  standardized,  a  comparatively 
inexperienced  and  consequently  a  cheap  teacher  can 
handle  and  hustle  on  to  the  next  higher  grade  forty  or 
even  sixty  children;  but  not  one  of  those  children  will 
have  received  even  an  elementary  education.  To  edu- 
cate requires  training,  competence  and  insight;  and 
teachers  having  these  qualifications  are  difficult  to  get 
at  ruling  salaries.  Even  such  teachers  cannot  really 
educate  their  pupils  unless  their  classes  are  limited  to 
not  over  twenty  children.  Only  when  he  is  in  a  small 
class  can  the  pupil  be  dealt  with  as  an  individual  and 
given  those  things  to  study,  to  plan  and  to  execute 
which  will  best  develop  his  body,  train  his  senses,  stim- 
ulate his  mind  and  build  up  his  morals.  Only  when  his 


216  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

schooling  is  fitted  to  him  —  and  not  he  to  the  schooling 
—  will  it  really  help  him  to  become  an  efficient  worker, 
a  clean  head  of  a  family  and  an  intelligent  and  con- 
scientious citizen. 


CHILD   IDLENESS 

THE  phrase  "  child  labor  "  goes  to  everybody's  heart, 
and  anyone  seeking  to  prevent  employment  under  fifteen 
or  sixteen  is  always  backed  by  strong  public  sentiment. 
Long  hours  in  bad  surroundings,  monotonous  and  heavy 
tasks  for  youth  are  universally  condemned.  Yet,  bad 
as  are  such  forms  of  child  labor,  there  is  something 
infinitely  worse:  child  idleness.  The  wreckage  from 
exploiting  children  in  unscrupulous  factories  and  sweat- 
shops is  terrible ;  but  it  is  relatively  small  compared  with 
that  resulting  every  day  from  simple  idleness. 

Every  child,  we  all  agree,  should  be  kept  active,  should 
have  definite  duties  and  should  work,  physically  and 
mentally,  if  his  body,  mind  and  will  are  to  be  developed 
properly.  Yet  in  most  communities  everything  seems 
to  conspire  to  keep  the  average  child,  to  fourteen  and 
even  to  eighteen  years  of  age,  practically  idle. 

Of  course,  he  goes  to  school;  but  under  the  usual 
machine  methods  —  methods  made  necessary  by  too 
large  classes  and  too  small  appropriations  —  the  child 
gets  scarcely  five  minutes  of  personal  attention,  and  is 
forced,  during  the  rest  of  the  school  day,  to  sit  in  a 
stuffy  room  and  to  go  through  the  motions  of  doing 
lessons  which  fail  to  engage  his  mind.  Even  the  dull 
(to  say  nothing  of  the  bright)  school  child  has  not 

217 


2i8  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

enough  to  keep  him  really  busy,  and  the  little  that  he 
actually  does  has  neither  interest  nor  meaning. 

Moreover,  this  inadequate  school  work  occupies  far 
less  than  one  fifth  of  his  waking  time.  The  rest  of  his 
education  is  carried  on,  as  a  rule,  without  supervision, 
in  back  yards  and  streets.  Modern  home  life  seldom 
permits  of  regular  daily  tasks;  the  indulgent  American 
parent  would  hesitate  to  impose  them;  the  child  craves 
youthful  companionship;  we  want  him  to  play  outdoors; 
and  the  result  is  that  nine  children  out  of  ten  pick  up 
that  part  of  their  education  which  determines  character, 
from  older  companions,  from  loafers  and  from  their 
own  ignorant  and  unbridled  whims. 

Fortunately  the  vast  majority  of  youth  survive  this 
educational  neglect  and  become  good  citizens;  but  this 
idleness  during  the  most  impressionable  years  of  life 
breeds,  by  thousands,  the  tough  or  hoodlum;  and  the 
tough  is  almost  certain  to  develop  into  either  the  incom- 
petent, the  loafer  or  the  actual  criminal.  One  of  the 
chief  feeders  of  prisons,  hospitals,  asylums  and  all  the 
other  expensive  backwaters  for  hiding  social  derelicts 
is,  without  question,  our  ignorant  or  mistaken  tolerance 
of  this  needless  curse :  child  idleness. 

Theoretically,  the  father  and  mother  are  responsible 
for  the  child  outside  the  schoolroom  and  should  see 
that  he  has  right  physical  and  moral  training.  Actually, 
however,  most  parents  are  too  busy,  earning  or  spending 
money,  to  give  him  any  real  oversight.  Moreover,  the 
herding  of  youth  is  not  only  natural  but  right;  for  the 
chief  function  of  education  is  to  prepare  a  man  to  deal 


CHILD  IDLENESS  219 

with,  and  to  understand,  his  fellowmen.  There  is  in- 
finite difference,  however,  between  the  organized,  super- 
vised group,  and  the  unorganized,  mischief-making 
"  gang,"  between  children  working  and  playing  together 
under  wise  direction,  and  children  idling  together  in 
dark  alleyways. 

With  mistaken  kindness  we  have  relieved  the  young 
of  the  burden  of  regular  labor ;  but  in  so  doing  we  have 
imposed  the  far  heavier  burden  of  aimless  idleness.  A 
majority  of  boys  and  girls,  fortunately,  have  sufficient 
initiative  to  organize  work  or  play —  and  there  is  no  real 
distinction  between  the  twro — for  themselves.  But  an 
appallingly  large  minority,  unable  to  rescue  themselves 
from  idleness,  fall  an  easy  prey  to  evil  influences,  within 
or  without  themselves.  From  them  is  made  up  the  huge 
army  of  loafers,  unemployables  and  criminals  which 
burdens  and  threatens  the  body  politic. 

Without  relaxing  our  efforts  concerning  the  thou- 
sands suffering  from  the  iniquities  of  child  labor,  we 
ought  to  consider  the  hundreds  of  thousands  whose  lives 
are  being  stunted  and  perhaps  ruined,  by  child  idleness. 

Neither  parents,  nor  Sunday  schools,  nor  any  other  of 
the  good  agencies  can  of  themselves  transform  discon- 
tented idlers  into  happy  workers;  but  with  the  cooper- 
ation of  the  school  they  can.  It  has  the  necessary 
machinery  and  authority,  and  should  take  the  lead  in  the 
fight  against  child  idleness.  The  school  cannot  make 
itself  effective,  however,  so  long  as  it  has  control  for 
only  a  few  hours  a  day,  five  days  in  the  week  and  thirty- 
five  weeks  in  the  year,  so  long  as  it  dumps  fifty  pupils 


220  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

upon  one  teacher,  and  so  long  as  it  subjects  the  child  to 
an  irksome  routine  of  purely  mental  and,  as  a  rule,  per- 
fectly futile  tasks. 

Education  being  the  most  important  business  of  the 
child's  life,  the  school  should  take  him  after  breakfast 
and  keep  him  until  late  afternoon,  every  day  except 
Sunday,  and  substantially  every  week  in  the  year.  With 
the  parent  and  the  community  helping,  with  teachers 
enough  to  give  each  pupil  individual  attention,  it  should 
educate  the  child  physically,  by  training  body  and  senses 
through  hard  work  and  thoroughgoing  play.  It  should 
educate  him  mentally,  not  merely  through  books,  but 
through  his  observation,  reasoning  and  personal  in- 
itiative. It  should  educate  him  morally  by  setting  him 
tasks  designed  to  strengthen  and  train  his  will,  by  mak- 
ing him  from  the  beginning  a  responsible  citizen  of  the 
school  community.  Above  all,  it  should  impress  upon 
him  in  every  way  the  blessedness  of  work. 

Such  schools  can  be  developed  only  gradually  and 
will  cost  much  money;  but  their  cost  can  never  equal 
the  cost  of  the  jails,  hospitals,  asylums,  etc.,  in  which  we 
try  to  undo  the  evils  of  bad  education,  or  that  of  the 
losses  suffered  by  industry  and  citizenship  through  the 
laziness,  sickness,  disloyalty  and  general  inefficiency  of 
men  and  women  who,  not  naturally  bad,  are  the  victims 
of  this  widespread  evil  of  child  idleness. 


COLLEGE  TRUSTEES  AND  COLLEGE 
FACULTIES 

IT  is  a  common  cry  that  teachers,  whether  in  colleges 
or  in  schools,  are  underpaid;  and  the  complaint  (espe- 
cially in  view  of  what  common  labor  gets)  seems  amply 
justified.  The  imperative  need  of  American  college 
faculties,  however,  is  not  higher  salaries ;  it  is  larger  pro- 
fessional authority  and  more  genuine  freedom.  Those 
attained,  the  wage  question  will  take  care  of  itself.  It 
is  true  that  teaching  offers  no  such  money  prizes  as  does 
law  or  medicine;  nevertheless,  the  average  professor  or 
school-master  is  in  many  ways  better  situated  than  the 
average  lawyer  or  physician.  Despite  this  patent  fact, 
the  number  of  youth  who  deliberately  prepare  them- 
selves to  be  teachers,  by  years  of  serious  study,  is  com- 
paratively small.  Young  men  of  power  and  ambition 
scorn  what  should  be  reckoned  the  noblest  of  profes- 
sions, not  because  that  profession  condemns  them  to  pov- 
erty, but  because  it  dooms  them  to  a  sort  of  servitude. 
The  American  lawyer  or  physician  is  subject  only  to  the 
judgment  of  his  peers,  —  that  is,  to  the  well-established 
code  of  his  profession.  The  American  teacher,  on  the 
contrary,  especially  in  the  public  schools,  is  not  only 
subject  to,  he  is  often  wholly  at  the  mercy  of,  unsym- 
pathetic laymen. 


222  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

This  condition  is  inherent  in  the  American  system  of 
education,  and  neither  can  nor  should  be  wholly  abro- 
gated. The  teacher  serves  the  public  (for  even  an  en- 
dowed college  is  a  public  institution)  and  must  rest, 
therefore,  under  some  of  a  servant's  disabilities.  Yet, 
without  impairing  the  proper  powers  of  school  or  col- 
lege trustees,  it  is  possible  to  give  teachers  —  or,  rather, 
to  restore  to  them  —  so  much  of  authority,  dignity  and 
independence  as  shall  raise  teaching  to  the  professional 
status  of  law,  to  a  position,  that  is,  where  it  will  commend 
itself  to  the  most  ambitious  and  the  best-trained  youth. 

The  medieval  universities  were  preemently  nurs- 
eries and  citadels  of  intellectual  freedom  and  political 
democracy.  They  were  "essentially  federated  repub- 
lics, the  government  of  which  pertained  either  to  the 
whole  body  of  the  masters  ...  or  to  the  whole  body  of 
the  students."  Moreover,  "what  slight  subordination 
did  exist  was,  in  the  beginning,  to  the  ecclesiastical  and, 
later,  to  the  civil  power."  The  American  universities, 
also,  from  the  frontier  college  of  Harvard,  in  1636,  to 
the  latest  frontier  (if  there  now  is  any  such  place)  col- 
lege of  the  plains,  have  been  strongholds  of  intellectual 
freedom ;  but  in  their  administration  they  have  been  pro- 
foundly subordinate,  in  the  early  days  to  the  ecclesiasti- 
cal, and  later  —  directly  or  indirectly, —  to  the  civil 
power. 

This  subordination,  under  the  stress  of  circum- 
stances, has  progressed  until  the  American  university 
has  become  an  autocracy,  wholly  foreign  in  spirit 
and  plan  to  our  political  ideals  and  little  short  of 


COLLEGE  TRUSTEES  AND   COLLEGE  FACULTIES     223 

amazing.  And  this  absolutism  of  the  American  uni- 
versity is  not,  as  in  the  days  of  the  scholastics,  an 
autocracy  of  teachers  and  scholars ;  it  is  an  autocracy  of 
ecclesiastical  or  lay  trustees.  Whence  has  arisen  this 
astonishing  inversion  ?  Why  does  the  very  fountain  of 
our  higher  life  present  this  paradox?  Mainly,  I  think, 
because  the  European  universities  grew  from  within, 
while  those  of  this  country  have  been  established  from 
without.  The  old  theocracy  of  New  England,  the 
younger  democracies  of  her  splendid  daughters,  created 
colleges  to  fit  youth  for  service  in  church  or  common- 
wealth, and  they  placed  over  them  men  of  notable  au- 
thority. In  the  East,  the  hands  of  both  church  and  state 
have  been  largely  withdrawn;  but  in  their  place  have 
appeared  the  dead  or  living  hands  of  donors  demanding 
that  their  gifts  be  safeguarded  by  stable  and  substan- 
tially irremovable  trustees.  College  and  public  school 
funds  are  no  less  sacred  than  they  are  colossal ;  and  those 
who  administer  them  assume  high  legal  as  well  as  moral 
responsibility.  But  this  large  liability  has  been  more 
than  balanced  by  the  gift  of  almost  absolute  powers, — 
powers  surpassing,  perhaps,  those  of  any  other  bodies. 
In  Massachusetts,  for  example,  school  boards  are  virtu- 
ally despotic,  far  transcending  in  authority  those  sturdy 
democrats,  their  parent  town  meetings. 

Excepting  those  strictly  denominational,  the  balance 
of  the  extraordinary  legal  powers  given  to  college  trus- 
tees has  gradually  passed  from  the  hands  of  the  clergy 
into  those  of  laymen  chosen,  as  a  rule,  for  their  standing 
as  financiers  rather  than  as  educators.  From  many  as- 


224  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

pects  this  has  been  a  salutary  change ;  but  there  has  fol- 
lowed from  it  one  signal  disadvantage:  that  of  putting 
the  trustees  more  and  more  out  of  touch  with  the  facul- 
ties whose  members  they  appoint.  Although  the  rever- 
end gentlemen  of  those  antique  college  boards  could 
scarcely  have  distinguished  a  government  bond  from  a 
wildcat  stock,  they  were  usually  scholars  by  inclination 
and  teachers  by  profession  and  their  relations  with  their 
faculties  were  close  and  sympathetic;  while  the  modern 
financier  who,  by  skillful  investing,  secures  every  pos- 
sible penny  of  income  for  his  college,  generally  finds  its 
educational  problems  quite  outside  his  range,  and  sees, 
therefore,  less  and  less  occasion  for  meeting,  or  even 
knowing,  that  faculty  over  which,  legally,  his  power  is 
of  life  and  death. 

This  change  in  personnel,  however,  is  not  alone  re- 
sponsible for  the  progressive  alienation  between  trus- 
tees and  faculty.  That  estrangement  has  come  about, 
no  less,  through  the  rapid  growth  of  college  curriculums 
and  in  college  attendance.  When  educational  institutions 
were  small  and  their  courses  of  study  undifferentiated,  it 
was  possible  for  trustees,  even  though  not  trained  as 
teachers,  to  acquire  an  admirable  education  (so  far  as 
concerned  their  own  college)  through  intimate  relations 
with  the  faculty  and  personal  supervision  of  their  work. 
But  with  the  enormous  development  in  numbers  and  com- 
plexity, this  old-fashioned  contact  between  trustees  and 
teachers  has  become  impossible  and,  at  best,  a  trustee 
can  now  make  himself  familiar  with  only  that  depart- 
ment of  the  university  which  it  is  his  duty  (more  hon- 


COLLEGE  TRUSTEES  AND   COLLEGE  FACULTIES    225 

ored  in  the  breach  than  in  the  observance)  to  inspect. 
Therefore,  the  modern  trustee  has  gradually  withdrawn 
from  the  teaching  side  of  the  college  to  fix  his  attention 
upon  those  questions  of  revenue,  housing  and  legisla- 
tion which  have  multiplied  even  faster  than  the  under- 
graduates. 

But  here  again  the  size  and  complexity  of  the  problem 
are  appalling  to  men  already  overweighted  with  other 
responsibilities.  These  material  questions,  however, 
must  be  met  and  settled  just  as  those  on  the  educational 
side  must  be  faced  and  solved.  And  both  business  and 
political  experience  have  taught  men  of  the  world  that 
the  quickest  and  least  troublesome  way  to  solve  admin- 
istrative problems  is  to  give  as  free  a  hand  as  possible  to 
some  man  with  brains,  with  tact,  with  power  of  initia- 
tive, of  leadership  and  of  persuasion  —  with,  in  short, 
those  peculiar  abilities  which  distinguish  the  generals 
of  our  intricate  twentieth  century  enterprises. 

Hence  has  arisen  the  modern  college  president,  a  being 
as  different  from  the  awe-inspiring  clergymen  of  the 
eighteenth  century  or  from  such  men  as  Josiah  Quincy 
(who  was  given  the  presidency  of  Harvard  as  a  sort  of 
haven  for  his  declining  years)  as  it  is  possible  to  imagine. 
The  modern  executives  have  had  thrust  upon  them  pow- 
ers which  give  their  decrees  the  finality  of  an  imperial 
ukase.  They  have  assumed  such  sway,  not  from  love  of 
dominion,  but  because  their  task  is  so  enormous  that 
nothing  short  of  practically  plenary  powers  would  per- 
mit of  its  being  done  at  all.  And  it  should  be  said  to 
their  honor  that  they  have  met  the  demands  upon  them  as 


226  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

organizers  and  administrators  so  ably  that,  to-day,  the 
leaders  of  the  country  are  not,  as  formerly,  the  great 
statesmen  and  clergymen;  they  are  these  modern  Cae- 
sars, the  heads  of  our  principal  colleges  and  universities. 

These  college  presidents  have  their  cabinets  in  the 
board  of  trustees,  if  that  board  be  small,  or  in  an  execu- 
tive committee  selected  from  it  if  the  board  be  large; 
they  have  their  staff  in  the  several  administrative  offi- 
cers, such  as  deans  and  registrars ;  they  have  their  field 
officers  in  the  heads  of  departments  or  courses;  and  the 
work  of  the  great  machine,  through  committees,  sub- 
committees, labor-saving  devices  and  automatic  meth- 
ods of  reporting,  is  as  smooth-running  (and  sometimes, 
I  fear,  almost  as  impersonal)  as  a  well-developed  mer- 
cantile establishment.  We  have  here  a  conspicuous  ex- 
ample of  the  current  tendency  towards  one-man  power, 
towards  that  concentration  of  authority  which  makes, 
of  course,  for  ease,  rapidity  and  sureness  of  administra- 
tion; but  which,  in  politics,  undermines  manhood;  in  in- 
dustrialism, destroys  initiative;  and  in  education  tends 
to  defeat  the  very  object  of  teaching,  which  should  be  to 
develop  and  make  the  most  of  every  man's  individuality. 
If  the  goal  of  a  college  were  the  giving  of  mere  instruc- 
tion, nothing  could  be  better  than  the  present  system 
of  administration;  but  colleges  should  be  fountains  of 
true  education,  and  the  best  part  of  education  comes 
through  the  personal  influence  of  the  older  governors 
and  teachers  upon  adolescent,  and  therefore  highly  im- 
pressionable, youth. 

Most  modern  colleges  have  expensive  and  excellent 


COLLEGE  TRUSTEES  AND   COLLEGE  FACULTIES     227 

material  plants  utilized  substantially  to  their  full  capac- 
ity. They  possess,  also,  admirable  executives  who,  as 
already  suggested,  are  used  beyond  their  reasonable 
limits  of  endurance.  But  those  colleges  have  also  other 
educational  forces  which  are  not  availed  of  to  anything 
like  their  normal  maximum.  Those  less  used  forces  are : 
(1)  The  personal  influence,  as  teachers  and  men  (not 
as  mere  administrators)  of  the  leaders  of  the  faculty, 
an  influence  which  should  be  exerted  upon  both  students 
and  trustees;  (2)  the  personal  influence,  as  men  of  power 
and  broad  human  experience  (not  as  mere  money  hold- 
ers) of  the  trustees,  an  influence  which  should  extend  to 
students  as  well  as  faculty;  and  (3)  the  perennial  and 
unselfish  loyalty  of  the  alumni,  together  with  the  unique 
experience  given  to  those  graduates  in  gauging  their 
collegiate  training  by  the  tests  of  life.  The  third  force 
is  beyond  the  present  scope;  but  let  it  not  be  inferred, 
therefore,  that  it  is  any  less  potent  than  the  other  two. 
Indeed,  in  the  last  analysis,  the  moral  as  well  as  the 
financial  strength  of  a  college  must  come  from  its  own 
sons. 

As  one  of  the  results  of  the  complexity  and  autocracy 
of  the  American  university  the  strongest  men  of  the 
faculty  —  the  men,  therefore,  whose  personal  influence 
upon  the  students  would  be  of  the  highest  value  — 
have  been  converted  into  subordinate  administrators 
harassed  with  details  of  department  maintenance  and 
committee  attendance.  As  a  further  result,  the  teaching 
has  been  put  largely  into  the  hands  of  recently  graduated 
youth,  zealous  but  not  always  wise,  untrained  in  the 


228  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

science  and  art  of  teaching,  and  quite  incapable,  of 
course,  of  giving  to  their  classes  the  inspiration  which 
comes  from  contact  with  men  of  wide  experience.  This 
throws  the  severest  strain  of  the  college  upon  the  weak- 
est part,  and  from  it  arises  much  of  our  educational  in- 
effectiveness. Mere  information,  lesson-hearing,  exam- 
inations, become  paramount;  scholarship  and  character 
are  well-nigh  forgotten,  being  impossible  to  register  by 
even  the  most  elaborate  machinery. 

The  trustees,  on  the  other  hand,  —  excepting  those  who 
constitute  the  president's  cabinet,  —  find  less  and  less 
opportunity  for  usefulness  in  a  machine  so  elaborate  that 
any  incursion  into  it,  by  those  unfamiliar,  may  do  infi- 
nite harm.  Therefore  most  of  them  drift  into  the  belief 
that  their  trust  is  discharged  by  attendance  upon  stated 
meetings  and  by,  perhaps,  an  annual  visit  to  that  depart- 
ment which,  nominally,  is  their  special  care.  Yet  the 
personal  influence  upon  the  students  of  men  like  college 
trustees  would  be  second  only,  in  educational  value,  to 
that  of  the  leading  members  of  the  faculty.  I  am  not 
prepared  to  suggest  any  plan  by  which  the  trustees  can 
be  brought  into  direct  personal  relations  with  the  stu- 
dents ;  but  I  firmly  believe  that  such  a  plan  could  be  de- 
vised ;  and  I  know  that  nothing  so  vivifies  a  man  of  middle 
life  and  of  large  responsibilities,  nothing  so  clears  his 
brain  and  rejuvenates  his  heart,  as  comradeship  with 
bubbling  and  eager  undergraduates. 

Whether  or  not  trustees  can  broaden  their  powers  and 
sweeten  their  responsibilities  by  thus  meeting  their 
students  directly,  it  is  clear  that  they  can  influence  them 


COLLEGE  TRUSTEES  AND   COLLEGE  FACULTIES    229 

indirectly  by  establishing  closer  relations  with  those 
young  men's  teachers.  For  their  pupils'  sakes  and  for 
their  own  advantage,  the  professors  need  the  stimulus 
and  the  breadth  of  view  which  they  would  get  from  look- 
ing at  the  world  through  the  eyes  of  such  a  man  of  affairs 
as  the  usual  trustee;  those  trustees,  on  the  other  hand, 
need  the  insight  into  true  education  and  into  the  diffi- 
culties of  training  youth  which  they  would  secure  from 
intimate  contact  with  the  members  of  their  faculty. 
The  money  conservatism  of  the  trustee,  hesitating  to 
grant  funds  for  new  enterprises,  needs  to  be  enlightened 
by  the  vision  which  the  teacher  has  of  the  demands  and 
possibilities  of  higher  education.  Per  contra,  the  aca- 
demic conservatism  of  the  scholar  needs  to  be  quickened 
by  the  hard  world-experience  of  a  man  of  more  varied 
responsibilities.  That  purblind  vision  of  the  '  practical ' 
man  which  exaggerates  material  success  requires  en- 
lightenment through  the  opposite,  but  no  less  purblind, 
vision  of  the  scholar  which  magnifies  intellectual  achieve- 
ment. Each  point  of  view  is  essential  to  the  ends  of  true 
education,  and  unless  each  in  authority  can  see  and  un- 
derstand the  other's  outlook,  the  university  will  suffer 
and  its  youth  will  be  defrauded  of  some  of  the  best  things 
in  college. 

At  present  —  except  for  certain  perfunctory  visiting 
—  almost  the  sole  point  of  contact  between  trustees  and 
faculty  is  their  common  sovereign,  the  president  who, 
as  a  rule,  has  administrative  duties  and  responsibilities 
beyond  normal  powers.  Moreover,  however  conscien- 
tious he  may  be,  his  personal  equation  cannot  but  enter 


230  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

into  his  interpretations,  so  to  speak,  between  two  bodies 
of  which  he  alone  is  a  common  factor.  It  is  essential  to 
his  leadership  that  he  should  have  large  powers  over  the 
teaching  staff,  but  the  opinions  of  the  most  perfect  of 
administrators  as  to  the  individuals  under  his  benevolent 
despotism  should  have  the  salutary  check  of  others' 
close  and  unbiased  observations. 

In  order,  therefore,  that  there  may  be  many  instead  of 
only  one  channel  of  understanding  between  trustees  and 
faculty  (as  well  as  for  the  more  subtle  reasons  suggested 
earlier),  I  would  advocate  most  earnestly  the  creation  in 
every  board  of  trustees  of  a  new  standing  committee. 
This  committee  should  be  very  carefully  chosen,  and  its 
duty  should  be  to  confer,  at  stated  and  frequent  intervals, 
with  a  like  standing  committee  of  the  faculty,  selected 
freely  by  that  body  itself.  And  I  would  advise,  further, 
that  this  conference  committee  be  distinct,  if  possible, 
from  that  executive  committee  which  I  have  called  the 
president's  cabinet;  and  that  no  legislation  of  any  con- 
sequence should  be  passed  by  the  executive  committee  or 
by  the  trustees  as  a  whole  without  the  concurrence  of 
this  joint  committee.  And  —  at  least  so  far  as  relates 
to  questions  having  any  educational  bearing — I  would 
have  it  understood  that  the  joint  committee  should  not 
concur  until  the  proposed  action  had  been  submitted  to 
the  faculty  as  a  whole,  had  been  debated,  if  so  desired, 
before  the  standing  committee  and  the  executive  com- 
mittee sitting  in  joint  session,  and  had  been  approved  by 
at  least  a  majority  of  the  teaching  staff. 

Such  a  general  plan  as  this  (the  details  of  which,  need- 


COLLEGE  TRUSTEES  AND   COLLEGE  FACULTIES    231 

less  to  say,  would  differ  with  each  college)  could  not  fail 
to  increase  the  educational  efficiency  of  a  college  to  an 
extraordinary  degree,  by  coordinating  the  views  of 
those  without  and  those  within  the  daily  routine  of 
teaching;  by  establishing  a  clear  understanding,  in  each 
body,  of  the  other's  problems;  by  relieving  the  legisla- 
tive and  administrative  responsibility  of  the  faculty ;  and, 
not  least,  by  making  that  faculty  —  without  adding  to 
its  legal  powers  —  a  body  coordinate  with,  instead  of 
subordinate  to,  the  board  of  trustees.  Unless  American 
college  teachers  can  be  assured  through  some  such 
change  as  this  that  they  are  no  longer  to  be  looked  upon 
as  mere  employees  paid  to  do  the  bidding  of  men  who, 
however  courteous  or  however  eminent,  have  not  the 
faculty's  professional  knowledge  of  the  complicated 
problems  of  education,  our  universities  will  suffer  in- 
creasingly from  a  dearth  of  strong  men,  and  teaching 
will  remain  outside  the  pale  of  the  really  learned  pro- 
fessions. The  problem  is  not  one  of  wages ;  for  no  uni- 
versity can  ever  become  rich  enough  to  buy  the  inde- 
pendence of  any  man  who  is  really  worth  purchasing. 

This  plan  of  cooperation  would  not,  however,  except 
to  a  limited  degree,  bring  the  trustees  as  men  into  closer 
contact  with  the  faculty  as  men.  And  the  plan  which 
I  offer  towards  that  second  aim  is  put  forward  with 
much  greater  diffidence.  The  scheme  of  a  joint  stand- 
ing committee  would  be  productive,  I  feel  certain,  of 
most  happy  results;  but  of  my  minor  proposition  I  am 
not  so  sure.  This  second  plan  is  to  make  every  member 
of  the  board  of  trustees  an  administrative  officer  in  that 


232 

branch  of  college  work  (so  far  as  possible)  which  is 
most  congenial  to  him,  giving  him  no  special  individual 
powers  over  his  assigned  department,  but  increasing  his 
responsibilities  by  making  him  —  together  with  one  or 
more  of  his  colleagues  —  the  direct  and  responsible  chan- 
nel of  information  between  that  department  and  the 
whole  board  of  trustees.  It  is  already  customary  in 
most  colleges  to  create  visiting  committees  with  the  duty 
of  presenting  annual  reports ;  my  suggestion  would  make 
substance  out  of  what  is  now  little  more  than  shadow,  by 
having  it  formally  understood  that  in  all  matters  re- 
lating to  his  department  the  trustee  would  be  looked  to 
for  reliable  information  and  responsible  advice. 

Difficulties,  of  course,  stand  thick  in  the  way  of  such 
a  project.  Among  them  are  the  unwillingness  of  al- 
ready busy  trustees  to  accept  further  responsibilities, 
the  danger  of  personal  friction  between  the  trustee  and 
the  department  head  and  the  natural  fear  on  the  part  of 
the  teacher  that  *  administration '  might  spell  itself  to  the 
trustee  as  mere  officiousness.  It  seems  probable,  how- 
ever, that  a  short  acquaintance  with  the  minutiae  of  a 
college  department  would  show  the  trustee  that  the  pro- 
fessor's as  well  as  his  own  time  is  far  too  valuable  to  be 
given  to  details  of  administration,  and  that  college  funds 
could  in  no  way  be  made  more  productive  than  by  giving 
the  heads  of  departments  such  clerks  and  underlings  as 
would  release  them  from  much  killing  drudgery.  There 
is  no  greater  extravagance  than  to  permit  an  expensively 
trained  man  to  do  ten-dollar-a-week  work.  And  that 
same  short  acquaintance  would,  I  believe,  so  interest  the 


COLLEGE  TRUSTEES  AND   COLLEGE  FACULTIES    233 

trustee  and  so  increase  his  respect  for  what  is  being  done 
and  what  is  still  to  do,  that  officiousness  or  meddling 
would  become  impossible. 

These  two  plans,  if  found  practicable  and  if  developed 
in  a  spirit  of  enthusiasm,  would  lead  to  many  other 
points  of  helpful  contact  between  trustees  and  faculty 
and  would  discover,  I  think,  unsuspected  avenues  of 
mutual  help.  By  these  or  some  like  methods  trustees  and 
faculties  must  be  brought  more  closely  together  unless 
we  wish  to  see  the  growing  alienation  of  the  administra- 
tive and  teaching  staffs  develop  into  a  real  and  fatal 
breach.  Separation  involves  mutual  misunderstanding 
and  that,  even  among  educated  men,  leads,  as  in  indus- 
trial enterprises,  to  arrogance  on  the  part  of  the  employer, 
to  suspicion  and  dislike  on  the  side  of  the  employed.  If 
cooperation  seems  imperative  to  the  solution  of  the  prob- 
lems of  industrialism,  how  much  more  necessary  is  it  if 
we  are  to  solve  the  educational  riddle.  Cooperation 
would  teach  the  trustees  the  antipodal  difference  between 
the  problems  of  a  university  and  those  of  a  business  cor- 
poration, and,  at  the  same  time,  would  show  the  faculty 
the  importance  of  business  methods  and  thorough  or- 
ganization. Cooperation  would  get  things  done  with- 
out compelling  universities  to  take  refuge  in  an  autoc- 
racy which,  harmful  in  itself,  is  breeding  a  race  of  youth 
who  scorn  the  slow  methods  of  democracy.  It  would 
develop  trustees  who  actually,  instead  of  fictitiously, 
comprehend  and  apprehend  their  trust;  it  would  unite 
faculties  which,  under  the  strain  of  departmental  com- 
plexity, are  fast  disintegrating ;  it  would  double  the  edu- 


234  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

cational  efficiency  of  our  colleges;  and,  most  important 
of  all,  it  would  make  our  universities,  as  they  ought  to 
be,  supreme  conservers  —  instead  of  conspicuous  de- 
stroyers—  of  that  genuine  spirit  of  democracy  which, 
more  than  schools,  more  than  churches,  more  than  any 
other  human  agency,  uplifts  mankind  and  builds  civili- 
zation. 


SCIENCE   AND   THE   UNIVERSITY 

FORTUNATELY  for  the  right  progress  of  civilization, 
that  part  of  education  maintained  by  schools  and  col- 
leges is  a  markedly  conservative  force.  It  acts  as  a 
balance-wheel  to  steady  the  social  machinery  when  over- 
urged  by  material  expansion  or  shaken  by  political  dis- 
turbances. To  do  this  it  must  obstinately  cling  to  out- 
worn systems  of  teaching,  directly  resisting,  at  times, 
the  growth  of  human  thought. 

Through  the  discovery  and  utilization  of  natural 
forces,  always  existent  but  only  gradually  revealed, 
comes  material  progress.  These  new  discoveries  and 
uses,  by  changing  man's  habits  and  social  relations,  com- 
pel an  unceasing  readjustment  of  mankind;  and  from 
this  continued  change  springs  what  we  call  civilization. 
So  erratic,  irregular  and  often  revolutionary  is  this 
action  that  society  would  risk  destruction  by  its  own 
progress  were  its  evolution  not  steadied  by  some  strongly 
conservative,  backward-reaching  force,  a  force  such  as 
exists  in  school  and  college  education. 

To  perform,  however,  this  important  function,  even 
schools  and  colleges  must  continuously,  though  slowly, 
readjust  themselves,  often  adopting  temporary  expedi- 
ents and  elaborate  subterfuges  rather  than  to  surrender, 
at  the  call  of  new  conditions,  their  outgrown  forms  and 

235 


236  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

usages.  Hence  result  those  compromises  in  education 
which  are  the  bane  of  both  conservatives  and  radicals. 
Such,  nevertheless,  is  the  constitution  of  society  that 
educational  systems,  like  governments,  apparently  can 
never  be  rational,  never  a  logical  and  economical  means 
to  a  definite  end.  Rather  must  they  be  always  make- 
shifts, clinging  to  the  past  and  yielding  only  with  pro- 
tests to  those  innovations  which  will  not  be  denied. 
"  One  of  the  greatest  pains  to  human  nature,"  says 
Bagehot,1  "is  the  pain  of  a  new  idea."  Remembering 
this,  and  conceding  that  social  progress  needs  a  steady- 
ing force,  it  is  easier  to  bear  with  patience  the  bungling 
ways  in  which  the  old,  useless  husks  of  teaching  are  re- 
luctantly discarded. 

The  process  of  educational  adjustment  has  been  hard- 
est during  the  past  century:  first,  because  no  previous 
hundred  years  has  seen  such  enormous  gains  in  mate- 
rial well-being;  secondly,  because  the  numbers  admitted 
to  mental  training  have  been  immeasurably  increased; 
and,  thirdly,  because  the  means  of  and  the  causes  for  de- 
velopment have  multiplied  by  leaps  and  bounds. 

Whatever  the  dispute  over  the  proper  ends  of  second- 
ary teaching,  it  will  be  generally  conceded  that  the  aim 
of  the  college  and  the  university  toward  the  minds  of 
their  students  should  be  chiefly  to  discipline  and  leaven, 
not  simply  to  inform.  The  range  of  human  knowledge 
should  therein  be  opened  to  young  men,  but  in  such  a 
way  and  with  so  much  of  method  as  to  create  in  them 
that  desire  for  mental  power,  that  habit  of  high  think- 

1  Physics  and  Politics,  V. 


SCIENCE  AND  THE  UNIVERSITY  237 

ing,  that  broad  and  always  widening  outlook  upon  life, 
which  distinguish  the  really  educated  from  the  merely 
well-informed.  In  the  words  of  Principal  Caird,1  "A 
university  has  for  its  function  the  cultivation  of  the 
scientific  habit  of  mind,  —  the  faculty  of  grasping  the 
universal  element  in  all  human  knowledge  .  .  .  What 
lends  distinctive  significance  to  the  name  University  is 
that  it  is  an  institution  which  teaches,  or  professes  to 
teach,  what  is  universal  in  all  departments  of  knowledge, 
and  each  separate  department  in  its  relation  to  univer- 
sal knowledge."  The  University  of  this  definition  in- 
cludes the  college;  but  for  the  present  purpose  the  term 
will  be  used,  more  narrowly,  with  reference  to  those 
years  of  graduate  study  and  of  special  research  through 
which  the  bachelor  becomes  a  doctor. 

Not,  broadly  speaking,  what  the  bachelor  or  doctor 
knows,  but  how  he  knows  it  and  to  what  use  he  can  put 
this  knowledge  measure  his  real  education.  Though  he 
possess  many  tongues  and  philosophies  and  be  yet  intol- 
erant, he  is  still  uneducated ;  though  his  degree  be  magna 
cum  laude,  the  praise  of  his  generation  will  be  propor- 
tioned—  moral  worth  being  assumed  —  to  his  breadth  of 
thought  and  his  hospitality  to  new  ideas.  "  One  of  the 
benefits  of  a  college  education,"  declares  Emerson,2  "  is 
to  show  the  boy  its  little  avail."  The  college  degree, 
like  the  hall-mark  upon  silver,  guarantees  the  genuine- 
ness, but  not  the  perfection  of  finish  or  the  usefulness  of 
those  that  bear  it.  The  living  sear  of  a  real  education 
can  be  given  only  in  a  true  college  or  university  through 

1  University  Addresses,  1898,  p.  3.  2  Culture. 


238  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

the  personal  influence  of  genuine  teachers  upon  men 
fitted  by  character  and  by  earlier  training  to  receive  and 
nourish  it.  The  degree,  under  such  conditions,  be- 
tokens, not  the  completion  of  a  course  of  recitations,  but 
thorough  equipment  for  a  notable  career. 

True  colleges  and  universities,  therefore,  must  give 
more  than  is  literally  implied  in  the  studies  prescribed 
for  a  degree,  must  demand  more  than  is  involved  in  at- 
tendance upon  exercises  and  the  passing  of  examinations. 
Were  this  not  so,  there  would  be  little  to  distinguish 
them  from  those  of  China,  where  instruction  and  exam- 
ination have  been  seemingly  perfected.  It  is  difficult 
to  define  this  quality  given  by  the  real  college  and  univer- 
sity to  those  ripe  to  receive  it :  "  education  "  has  too  gen- 
eral a  meaning,  "  culture  "  a  too  narrow  one.  Perhaps 
breadth  is  the  best  term,  comprehending  in  a  single  word 
Doctor  Caird's  "faculty  of  grasping  the  universal  ele- 
ment in  all  human  knowledge." 

The  breadth  of  the  college,  however,  is  far  less  ample 
than  that  of  the  real  university.  As  has  been  said,  the 
college,  fortunately,  is  conservative,  anchored  to  solid 
foundations  of  accepted  truth.  Its  body  of  teaching, 
therefore,  must  be  that  generally  recognized,  its  educa- 
tional spirit  must  be  tranquil,  its  point  of  view  sober,  its 
tendency  rather  historical  than  speculative.  Receiving 
young  men  at  an  age  when  mental  and  physical  vigor  is 
great,  but  judgment  weak,  when  romance,  enthusiasm, 
aspiration,  have  not  yet  been  curbed  and  chastened,  the 
task  of  the  college  is  chiefly  to  impart  to  them  some  meas- 
ure of  human  experience,  through  history  and  econom- 


SCIENCE  AND  THE  UNIVERSITY  239 

ics ;  to  convince  them  of  the  supremacy  of  law,  through 
mathematics  and  the  physical  sciences ;  to  broaden  their 
mental  and  spiritual  vision,  through  language,  literature 
and  art.  The  college  has,  moreover,  still  two  other  du- 
ties :  that  of  guiding  the  physical  and  moral  development 
of  its  students  —  the  first  through  proper  gymnastics, 
the  second  through  the  character  and  ideals  of  its  teach- 
ers—  and  that  of  helping  the  young  man  to  find  himself; 
that  is,  to  determine  so  far  as  may  be  possible  what  in- 
herited gifts  and  aptitudes  are  his. 

This,  and  no  broader,  being  the  scope  of  the  college, 
it  is  plain  that  its  students  must  be  held,  though  to  an 
ever  lessening  degree,  in  tutelage.  Were  this  not  so, 
if  youths  of  college  age  —  which  in  this  generation 
means  from  eighteen  to  twenty-two — did  not  need 
training  of  the  general  character  outlined,  why  would  it 
be  necessary  to  send  them  to  college  at  all,  except  for  the 
purely  utilitarian  end  of  gaining  a  certain  amount  of  in- 
formation? If,  as  none  will  deny,  the  boy  of  eighteen 
does  need  to  learn  through  human  experience,  to  be  per- 
suaded of  the  inviolability  of  law,  to  be  cultured  through 
acquaintance  with  the  ripest  fruits  of  civilization,  who 
is  the  best  judge  of  how  these  weighty  matters  shall  be 
opened  to  him,  —  the  college  faculty,  or  himself?  Such 
a  question  can  receive  but  one  answer.  Choice  the  youth 
should  have ;  but  not  the  aimless  grasping  of  a  child  with 
a  heap  of  toys.  Only  as  he  gains  that,  wisdom  and  power 
which  it  is  the  province  of  the  college  to  develop,  ought 
the  choosing  to  be  more  fully  his ;  and  never  should  it  lie 
absolutely  with  him. 


240  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

The  general  trend  of  his  studies,  after  he  shall  have 
been  at  college  long  enough  to  have  gained  and  given 
some  knowledge  of  his  capacities,  must,  indeed,  be  es- 
tablished by  the  youth  himself ;  but  having  fixed  his  gen- 
eral direction,  he  is  not  then  to  be  permitted  to  tack  and 
veer,  hither  and  yon,  trying  this  and  that  subject  as  fancy 
or  indolence  may  prompt;  his  course,  a  limited  one  at 
best,  must  be  so  far  laid  out  for  him,  there  must  be  such 
correlation  in  his  lines  of  study,  that  in  the  short  time  of 
college  residence  he  may  be  carried  as  far  as  possible  out 
of  irresponsible  boyhood  into  well-balanced,  broad- 
minded,  cultivated  manhood.  There  is  no  contradic- 
tion in  saying  that  a  student's  course  should  be  nar- 
rowed in  order  to  make  him  broad;  but  the  restricting 
of  his  work  and  the  resultant  broadening  of  his  life 
should  be  controlled,  not  by  him,  ignorant,  but  by 
those  who  through  years  of  study,  experience  and  teach- 
ing have  "  grasped  the  universal  element  in  all  human 
knowledge." 

The  breadth  which  comes  from  the  university  is  widely 
different,  —  not  in  kind,  but  in  degree.  The  college 
is  designed  to  bring  youth  up  to  the  mental  level  of  his 
age,  the  university  should  carry  him  above  it ;  the  college 
fulfills  its  purpose  in  conserving  present  civilization,  the 
university  should  build  toward  a  higher  intellectual  and 
moral  life;  the  college  leaves  its  graduate  measurably 
familiar  with  or  able  to  familiarize  himself  with  the 
sum  of  human  knowledge,  the  university  should  gradu- 
ate men  able  to  make  immediate  addition  to  that  sum; 
the  college  should  make  students,  the  university,  scholars. 


SCIENCE  AND  THE  UNIVERSITY  241 

The  spirit  of  the  university,  therefore,  must  be  one  of 
absolute  freedom,  yet  of  rigorous  severity.  Its  students 
must  not  only  be  men,  —  such  men  as  the  genuine  col- 
lege breeds,  —  they  must  be  treated  like  men  and  judged 
like  men.  Therein  there  should  be  neither  ornament 
nor  convention,  neither  excuses  nor  "conditions,"  but 
work  of  the  most  exact  and  exacting  kind.  The  college 
must  and  may  adapt  itself  to  the  average  man ;  the  uni- 
versity exists  for  the  exceptional  man.  No  flight  of  the 
imagination  and  no  depth  of  research  but  the  university 
should  encourage  and  give  scope  to ;  but  it  must  unflinch- 
ingly require  imagination  to  be  steadied  by  learning  and 
sobered  by  hard  work,  it  must  demand  that  research 
set  forth  from  established  principles  and  follow  rigor- 
ous methods  to  provable  results.  Whatever  may  have 
been  its  origin  and  however  shamefully  the  word  may 
have  been  abused,  the  time  has  come  when,  for  the  credit 
of  scholarship  and  the  sake  of  solid  learning,  a  univer- 
sity should  mean  that  place  only  in  which  are  bred, 
through  the  highest  scholarship  and  the  fullest  means  of 
research,  the  intellectual  leaders  of  the  world. 

How  far  from  such  a  standard  are  most  of  the  univer- 
sities of  to-day  it  is  useless  to  point  out;  how  com- 
pletely such  a  standard  can  ever  be  realized  it  is  idle  to 
discuss ;  but  toward  this  perfection  all  universities  should 
strive,  and  in  the  light  of  it  all  pretenders  to  that  title 
should  be  judged.  Every  college,  moreover,  without  in 
the  least  attempting  to  inflate  itself,  should  have  such  an 
ideal  before  it,  closely  affiliating  with  a  university  that 
will  take  its  picked  students  and  transform  some  few  of 


242  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

them  into  scholars.  It  is  not  essential  that  the  college 
and  the  university  be  associated  under  the  same  charter. 
Two  or  three  institutions,  indeed,  the  United  States 
should  have  wherein  is  offered  the  entire  range  of  col- 
legiate and  university  work;  the  rest  of  them,  especially 
the  colleges,  may  well  be  widely  scattered.  But  no  college 
should  rank  as  such  which  does  not  "  hitch  its  wagon  to 
the  star  "  of  some  real  university ;  and  no  university  but 
should  live  in  closest  relation  with  one  or  many  colleges. 

As  to  the  professional  schools,  —  those  of  law,  of 
medicine,  of  the  other  learned  vocations,  —  their  place  in 
the  scheme  of  education  would  seem  to  be  a  middle  one 
between  the  college  and  the  university,  belonging,  all  of 
them,  to  the  latter ;  but,  from  their  special  and  restricted 
nature,  partaking  more  fully  of  the  methods  of  the 
former. 

Four  classes  of  students,  therefore,  would  be  found  in 
a  complete  university.  The  first  and  largest  class,  that 
which  finishes  the  college  course  alone;  the  second,  and 
next  in  size,  made  up  of  those  who  pursue  the  college 
work,  specialized  more  and  more  in  the  direction  of  their 
vocation,  and  follow  it  by  a  course  in  a  professional 
school ;  thirdly,  those  who,  aiming  at  no  distinctive  pro- 
fession, supplement  directly  the  work  of  the  college  with 
that  of  the  university;  and,  finally,  those  who  complete 
the  full  educational  journey,  equipping  themselves  in  the 
highest  possible  degree  for  a  life  of  professional  research 
or  of  teaching. 

In  an  attempt  to  provide  for  these  four  classes,  let  not 
the  college  puff  itself  into  a  seeming  university  either  by 


SCIENCE  AND  THE  UNIVERSITY  243 

assuming  the  name  or,  what  is  worse,  by  admitting  boys 
of  college  age,  who  need  —  as  never  so  much  in  their 
lives  —  mental  discipline  and  oversight,  to  the  freedom 
and  self-direction  of  university  methods.  And,  on  the 
other  hand,  let  there  be  no  needless  waste  of  time,  no  in- 
tellectual dawdling,  but  always  a  forelooking  into  the 
work  ahead.  Let  the  college  anticipate,  in  the  highest 
measure  consonant  with  broad  studentship,  the  special 
work  of  the  professional  school,  and  let  the  technical 
subjects  of  that  school  be  ennobled  as  far  as  possible  by 
the  spirit  and  opportunity  of  original  research  distinc- 
tive of  the  university.  The  number  of  years  spanned 
by  a  college-university  is  a  matter  of  small  consequence. 
The  period  may  be  as  elastic  as  the  extraordinary  quick- 
ness of  one  student  and  the  plodding  thoroughness  of 
another  may  make  necessary. 

The  classical  university  of  to-day  has  grown  out  of 
those  of  the  Renaissance  by  slow  accretion.  Elaborate 
as  is  the  modern  curriculum,  not  a  link  is  missing  by 
which  to  trace  it  back  to  the  few  subjects  of  that  earlier 
learning  which  found  inspiration  in  the  philosophy  and 
linguistics  of  Greece,  the  oratory  and  jurisprudence  of 
Rome,  the  theology  of  the  Church  and  the  disputations 
of  scholasticism,  —  all  of  it  subjective  learning,  centering 
in  man  himself  as  the  ancient  cosmogony  centred  in 
man's  planet.  This  old  body  of  thought  found  its  au- 
thorization wholly  in  the  custom  of  states,  in  the  dogma 
of  scholars,  in  the  fiat  of  revelation.  Because  man  had 
decided  it  thus,  because  God  had  revealed  it  so:  these 
were  the  sole  bases  for  believing.  Arbitrariness  was  its 


244  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

only  rule,  custom  its  only  visible  foundation.  And  so 
aristocratic  has  remained  this  ancient  learning,  so  abso- 
lute the  entail  upon  its  estates,  and  so  unbroken  the  de- 
scent of  its  possessors  that,  despite  the  changed  condi- 
tions of  material  and  intellectual  life,  it  retains  to-day 
much  of  its  earlier  prestige.  Like  "  My  Lords  and 
Bishops,"  who,  politically  almost  superfluous,  yet  walk 
before  the  real  determiners  of  Great  Britain's  policy;  so 
the  Humanities,  with  a  pedigree  centuries  old,  with  fair 
estates  of  literature,  with  a  great  tenantry  of  students, 
demand  precedence  of  the  Sciences,  those  "mechanic" 
parvenues  who  humbly  minister  to  universal  comfort 
and  meekly  control  the  destinies  of  all  mankind.  It  is 
devoutly  to  be  hoped  that  a  day  of  complete  materialism, 
when  the  latter  would  inevitably  supplant  the  former, 
may  never  come;  but,  for  the  good  of  civilization,  the 
time  must  soon  arrive  when  the  new  will  have  equal 
rank  with  the  old  in  the  world  of  education,  when  there 
will  be  no  more  prating  of  "learning  for  learning's 
sake,"  but  only  a  universal  desire  to  learn  for  the  higher 
purpose  of  advancing  civilization. 

Because,  in  the  very  nature  of  things,  this  equal  rank 
could  not  be  given  to  science,  in  the  last  century,  by  the 
older  universities,  there  arose  independent  schools  or 
colleges  of  technology.  Science  in  its  many  forms  and 
applications  is  not  now  absent  from  any  of  the  elder  in- 
stitutions of  learning ;  but  it  is  not  fundamental  to  them ; 
it  has  merely  been  added  on  —  in  some  cases  quite  super- 
ficially—  in  obedience  to  pressure.  Their  science- 
courses  have  not  sprung  from  the  original  trunk  of  col- 


SCIENCE  AND  THE  UNIVERSITY  245 

lege  learning;  they  have  not  even  been  grafted  upon  that 
ancient  stock;  rather  have  they  been  used  as  props,  put 
in  perforce  to  save  the  tree  from  being  rent  asunder. 
There  are  to  be  found,  indeed,  very  distinguished  schools 
of  science  in  connection  with  universities ;  but  either  they 
are  really  independent  in  everything  except  the  legal 
sense,  pursuing  their  rounded  careers  quite  without  re- 
gard to-  the  colleges  of  arts,  or  they  are  subsidiary  to 
those  colleges,  carrying  out  but  partially  the  work  of 
education  and  ranking,  therefore,  as  professional 
schools,  with  those  of  medicine  and  dentistry. 

This  last  position,  it  may  be  contended,  is  the  proper 
one  for  a  college  of  technology.  In  the  eyes  of  many  it 
should  be  a  simple  school  for  the  training  of  engineers, 
architects,  chemists  and  other  " practical"  men  in  the 
technical  details  of  their  professions.  And  this  attitude 
would  be  justifiable  were  it  a  mere  question  of  mechanic 
skill.  Were  the  problem  one  simply  of  imparting  pro- 
fessional secrets  and  peculiar  knowledge,  there  is  no 
reason  why  a  boy  from  the  secondary  school  should  not 
be  pushed  through  some  sort  of  course  corresponding  to 
that  of  the  so-called  business  college,  and  be  sent  thence 
to  the  office  or  the  field  for  those  finishing  touches  which 
only  practical  experience  can  give. 

But  this  whole  question  is  not  one  of  technical  skill; 
it  is  one  of  education.  The  aim  of  the  day,  the  need  of 
the  day,  is  to  produce  not  simply  engineers,  but  engineers 
who  are  also  educated  men.  And  the  best  means  of  ac- 
complishing this  aim,  of  filling  this  need,  is  to  provide  for 
young  men  having  a  bent  toward  scientific  study,  a  col- 


246  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

legiate  and,  if  you  will,  a  university  education.  Such 
youths  must  not  be  content  with  mastering  formulae 
and  acquiring  information  special  to  their  vocations, — 
a  thing  which  might  readily  be  done  in  the  office  of  a 
good  practitioner,  —  they  must  acquire,  if  they  would 
honor  their  professions,  that  quality  which  the  college 
and  university  alone  can  give,  that  "  faculty  of  grasping 
the  universal  element  in  all  human  knowledge"  which 
is  best  called  breadth.  It  is  by  balanced  judgment,  by 
far-seeing  adaptation  of  means,  by  the  modest  yet  per- 
sisting faith  of  real  knowledge,  by  personal  power  to 
inspire  confidence,  by  the  irresistible  force  of  the  man 
who  can,  —  in  short  it  is  by  breadth  of  real  education, 
that  the  engineer  carries  through  those  enormous  under- 
takings which  amaze  and  benefit  his  fellow  men.  The 
minutest  acquaintance  with  formulae,  the  most  sur- 
prising "  knacks,"  will  not  enable  this  stupendous  work 
to  be  done  by  one  who  has  not  also  breadth. 

This  being  granted,  where  most  directly  and  fully  shall 
the  young  man  who  purposes  to  be  a  leader  in  some  pro- 
fession of  applied  science  acquire  this  breadth?  In  the 
halls  of  an  elder  college,  which  has  its  roots  deep  down  in 
the  Renaissance  humanities,  which  is  builded  upon  an 
unalterable  plan  of  linguistics  and  dialectics,  to  which 
such  newer  subjects  as  are  gathered  under  the  wide 
term,  science,  are  but  external  and,  in  a  measure,  alien  ? 
Shall  he  best  prepare  himself  for  a  profession  whose 
methods  must  be  almost  purely  inductive,  whose  results 
must  be  obtained  by  investigating  phenomena,  in  colleges 
founded  upon  systems  of  thought  largely  subjective  and 


SCIENCE  AND  THE  UNIVERSITY  247 

knowing  no  other  phenomena  than  those  endorsed  by 
Aristotle?  Will  he  most  profitably  serve  his  appren- 
ticeship to  the  master  whose  watchword  is  the  absolute- 
ness of  natural  law,  in  institutions  whose  foundation- 
studies  are  of  purely  human  origin?  Such  training 
would  not  harm  him.  A  college  course  of  any  kind  is 
broadening,  even  though  the  subjects  taught  and  the 
methods  of  teaching  have  a  connection  only,  most  remote 
with  the  chosen  vocation  of  the  person  taught.  But  the 
question  here  is  how  best  to  prepare  the  engineer,  how 
most  amply  to  broaden  him  for  his  intended  career. 
With  that  in  mind,  it  is  clear  that  those  colleges  will  most 
acceptably  train  young  men  for  the  professions  of  ap- 
plied science  which  rest  broadly  upon  inductive  thought 
and  methods  and  which  prescribe  from  the  beginning,  as 
a  chief  source  of  education,  the  systematic  and  profound 
study  of  natural  laws.  It  is  a  matter  of  small  moment, 
though  one  not  to  be  despised,  that  such  a  college  pre- 
sents subjects  of  immediate  utility;  but  it  is  of  immense 
moment  that,  at  its  most  impressionable  and  active  age, 
the  mind  of  these  young  men  should  be  steeped  in  an 
atmosphere  of  research,  that,  since  every  man  must  be 
a  specialist,  it  should  thus  early  be  habituated  to  that 
essential  tool  of  all  scientific  achievement,  the  inductive 
method. 

It  is  true  —  so  liberal  and  comprehensive  are  the  lead- 
ing American  colleges  —  that  a  young  engineer  or  chem- 
ist could  easily  select  and  follow  in  any  one  of  them  a 
course  of  study  ample  in  preparation  for  the  professional 
school  of  science ;  but  the  atmosphere  essential  to  his  best 


248  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

development  would  there  be  lacking.  However  earnest 
the  student,  however  faithful  the  teachers,  the  spirit  of  the 
place,  while  not  hostile,  cannot  be  heartily  sympathetic. 
The  youth  fails  to  receive,  therefore,  that  immense  and 
lasting  impetus  which  is  so  vital  to  his  future  and  which 
a  college  of  some  sort  alone  can  give.  That  he  should 
fail  to  receive  this  is  not  the  fault  of  the  classical  col- 
leges. They  are  designed  to  educate  in  a  certain  way 
to  a  well-defined  end ;  and  nobly  are  most  of  those  of  the 
present  day  fulfilling  that  design.  The  trouble  lies  in 
the  fact  that  by  tradition,  by  habit,  by  that  very  conserv- 
atism which  makes  them  priceless  to  the  community, 
they  are  unequal  to  the  task  of  meeting  fully  certain 
conditions  which  arise  and  are  rapidly  expanding  with 
the  twentieth  century.  Startlingly  as  they  have  modi- 
fied their  curricula  to  keep  pace  with  the  progress  of 
scientific  discovery,  there  is  still  lacking  in  them  that  at- 
mosphere of  scientific  method  which  the  colleges  of  tech- 
nology, unhampered  by  tradition,  have  received  as  a 
birthright  and  which  is  essential  to  the  best  education 
of  an  engineer. 

Having  maintained,  then,  that  the  young  engineer  or 
other  student  of  science  will  be  best  trained  in  a  college 
especially  designed  for  him,  a  college  resting,  to  speak 
broadly,  upon  objective  rather  than  upon  subjective 
study,  it  remains  to  show  whether  or  not  the  new  col- 
leges arisen  to  meet  this  need  are  competent  to  their  diffi- 
cult and  important  office.  In  doing  this,  I  hope  to  prove 
them  not  only,  at  least  potentially,  equal  to  this  duty,  but 
competent,  as  they  slowly  and  legitimately  grow,  to 


SCIENCE  AND   THE  UNIVERSITY  249 

provide   the   entire   range   of   education   of   a   college- 
university. 

A  college  must  be  conservative,  yet  progressive;  it 
must  secure  to  its  students  breadth  as  well  as  informa- 
tion; it  must  convert  irresponsible  boys  into  well-poised 
men.  To  do  this  it  must  lead  a  lad  gradually  out  of  the 
complete  supervision  of  the  secondary  school  into  the 
freedom  of  the  university  by  paths  of  study  that,  while 
teaching  him  experience,  impressing  him  with  divine  law, 
giving  him  culture,  shall  also  conserve  his  physical  and 
moral  soundness  and  enable  him  to  "  find  himself."  For 
such  a  task  as  this  has  not  the  college  of  applied  science 
unusual  qualifications  ?  What  better  field  can  there  be 
for  conservative  progression  than  in  a  course  of  tech- 
nology, where  the  measurably  exact  knowledge  of  yes- 
terday is  being  steadily  supplanted  by  the  more  exact 
knowledge  of  to-day,  where  the  methods  based  upon 
earlier  discoveries  are  always  in  process  of  modification 
through  newer  researches?  By  the  very  character  of 
scientific  investigation,  which  must  be  thorough,  which 
must  be  honest,  which  must  proceed  from  the  student 
himself,  the  boy  is  led  to  an  understanding  of  life,  to  a 
comprehension  of  and  respect  for  law,  to  a  self-knowl- 
edge, that  of  themselves  would  make  a  man  of  him. 
But,  in  addition,  the  "  unity  in  variety  "  of  such  a  college, 
the  many  professional  courses  emanating  from  a  few 
fundamental  sciences,  permit  of  the  gradual  expansion 
of  the  student's  mind,  of  his  slow  release  from  the  su- 
pervision of  the  earlier  work  into  the  freedom  of  later 
researches,  of  an  unfolding  of  himself,  of  a  discovery 


250  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

of  his  weak  and  his  strong  points  most  broadening  to 
him  and  most  enlightening  to  his  teachers  and  his 
friends.  Such  courses  present  the  very  ideal  of  condi- 
tions for  the  right  application  of  the  elective  principle. 
And,  by  its  nature,  very  much  of  what  such  a  student 
does  must  be  accomplished  by  laboratory  methods,  than 
which  no  better  means  has  ever  been  devised,  not  only 
to  develop  self-reliance,  but  to  bring  student  and  teacher 
into  close  personal  relations  impossible  in  the  lecture  or 
recitation  room.  The  physical  effect,  moreover,  of  lab- 
oratory work,  of  the  strenuous  and  sustained  endeavor 
inseparable  from  the  pursuit  of  applied  science,  is,  when 
properly  supplemented  by  systematic  exercise,  most  sal- 
utary. Finally,  through  all  the  work  of  the  college  of 
technology  runs  the  incentive,  by  no  means  to  be  disre- 
garded or  disapproved,  that  what  the  student  does  is  use- 
ful, that  what  he  undertakes  has  results,  that  what  he 
begins  leads  to  a  definite  end.  There  is  added,  in  short, 
to  all  his  work  that  excellent  butter  to  the  bread  of  sus- 
tained labor,  interest. 

Granting  all  this,  it  may  still  be  argued  that  a  course  in 
applied  science  fails  to  provide  culture ;  that  in  this  direc- 
tion, if  in  no  other,  the  classical  college  offers  superior 
advantages.  But  in  what  way  does  culture  differ  from 
breadth?  Does  the  possession  of  primitive  learning 
give,  of  itself,  greater  culture  than  that  of  modern?  If 
so,  then  folk-lore  is  superior  to  history,  child-study  to 
philosophy.  There  was  wisdom,  there  was  vigor  of 
thought,  there  was  purity  of  form,  there  was  perfection 
of  art,  in  the  old  days ;  but,  even  supposing  that  the  col- 


SCIENCE  AND  THE  UNIVERSITY  251 

lege  student  of  the  classics  absorbed,  as  he  certainly  does 
not,  all  this,  would  he  not  gain  as  much,  or  more,  by  an 
equal  poring  over  modern  learning?  What  has  the 
world  lost  of  all  this  old  culture  in  its  progress  of  cen- 
turies? On  the  other  hand,  what  has  it  not  gained  by 
the  bitter  schooling  of  these  more  than  two  thousand 
years?  Truly,  as  Bacon  says,  "These  times  are  the 
ancient  times,  when  the  world  is  ancient ;  "  and  to-day's 
wisdom,  not  that  of  Greece,  is  the  ancient  wisdom,  the 
wisdom  acquired  by  generation  after  generation  handing 
on  the  sum  of  experience,  grown  always  greater  and 
approaching  ever  more  close  to  that  eternal  wisdom 
which  is  divine.  The  man  of  culture,  it  is  true,  should 
possess  the  largest  measure  possible  of  antique  learning; 
but  his  well  is  but  shallow  if  it  does  not  draw  also  from 
the  immense  reservoir  of  modern  scholarship.  Culture, 
again,  connotes  the  philosophic  temper ;  but  what  is  that 
but  "  the  faculty  of  grasping  the  universal  element  in  all 
human  knowledge"  ?  And  will  that  faculty  not  come 
as  surely  from  the  study  of  Darwin  as  from  that  of 
Aristotle;  from  the  thorough  search  into  a  problem  of 
biology  as  from  a  digging  for  Greek  roots  ? 

Not  the  topic,  but  the  spirit  of  the  teacher  and  the 
taught,  lies  at  the  root  of  culture ;  and  be  they  many  or 
be  they  few,  be  they  ancient  or  be  they  modern,  the  one 
requirement  is  that  college  courses  should  result  in 
breadth.  The  sole  study  of  biology,  as,  equally,  the  un- 
diluted study  of  Greek  roots,  would  result  in  insufferable 
narrowness  and  pedantry.  Each  must  be  modified  by 
as  many  other  human  interests  as  possible,  if  we  would 


252  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

produce  that  quality  of  mind  and  character  called  cul- 
ture. But  such  a  result  will  be  just  as  fully  and  honor- 
ably reached  by  courses  of  applied  science,  relieved  and 
broadened  by  history,  economics  and  modern  languages, 
as  by  courses  of  philosophy,  relieved  by  ancient  history, 
rhetoric  and  so-called  classics.  Intrinsically,  therefore, 
the  college  of  applied  science  is  as  potent  for  culture  as 
the  classical  college. 

That,  however,  the  colleges  of  technology,  in  their  few 
decades  of  existence,  have  yet  reached  their  fullest  de- 
velopment, none  will  maintain.  They  are  attempting, 
at  the  present  time,  to  fill  the  anomalous  and  well-nigh 
impossible  role  of  giving  an  academic  and  professional 
education  in  the  four-year  period  of  the  old  college 
course.  Since  the  immediate  demand  is  for  mere  tech- 
nical training,  since  that  demand  is  greater  than  the  sup- 
ply, since  the  whole  matter  of  applied  science  is  so  new 
that  there  is  not  yet  a  standard  of  technological  culture, 
the  performance  in  these  colleges  of  the  work  of  educa- 
tion must,  perhaps  for  many  years  to  come,  be  incom- 
plete. But  in  acknowledging  this  incompleteness,  in 
appreciating  the  fact  that  the  work  of  seven  years  com- 
pressed into  four  cannot  induce  in  graduates  that  breadth 
which  should  be  the  aim  of  higher  education,  let  these 
colleges  not  agree  that  culture  in  the  amplest  meaning  is 
not  theirs  to  give  when,  by  time,  by  public  criticism,  by 
repeated  experimenting  they  shall  have  learned  how  best 
to  enrich  and  amplify  their  courses.  Already  are  they 
adding  to  and  broadening  the  work  in  modern  languages, 
in  economics,  in  history;  already  are  they  widening  the 


SCIENCE  AND  THE  UNIVERSITY  253 

basis  of  their  technical  instruction  so  that  it  may  rest 
more  fully  upon  pure  science  and  philosophy;  already, 
as  more  scholarly  leisure  and  greater  wealth  come  to 
them,  are  they  opening  to  their  picked  students  the  paths 
of  higher  research.  And  in  time,  as  the  greatness  of 
their  possibilities  is  perceived,  as  those  large  endowments 
needful  for  scientific  research  come  to  them,  as  the  vast 
culture-power  of  modern  learning  dawns  upon  a  con- 
servative, classically  educated  public,  the  college  of 
technology  will  grow  into  a  complete  college-university. 
Then  will  its  earlier  years  be  given  to  the  development  of 
boys  into  men  through  judicious  courses  of  modern 
learning,  its  middle  years  be  devoted  more  closely, 
though  not  exclusively,  to  professional  training,  its 
higher  years  be  dedicated  to  research,  most  exact  and 
thorough,  into  the  stupendous  problems  of  pure  science. 

These  colleges  of  science  are  now  on  trial  before  the 
world.  Their  years  of  obscurity,  of  neglect,  of  almost 
abject  poverty,  are  over;  the  public  freely  acknowledges 
that  their  work  was  needed  and  has  been  well  done.  But 
they  cannot  now  stand  still ;  neither  can  they  longer  fol- 
low the  indefinite  path  permitted  to  experimenters.  They 
must  plainly  indicate  their  future  course.  That  course 
must  be  either  backward  or  forward :  backward  into  the 
comparatively  easy  position  of  a  mere  professional 
school,  training  engineers  and  others  in  the  technicali- 
ties of  their  vocations ;  or  forward  over  the  long  and  diffi- 
cult road  of  development,  by  traversing  which  they  will 
become  true  college-universities  fitted  to  lead  young  men, 
by  paths  of  broadest  culture,  up  to  and  through  the  most 
difficult  researches  of  the  highest  education. 


IV.     IN    RECONSTRUCTION 


THE   MAIN   OBJECTIVES 

THE  war  is  ended,  and  for  this  fortunate  outcome  we 
owe  endless  debt  to  Belgium,  who  scorned  to  be  bought, 
to  France,  who  refused  to  be  beaten,  to  Britain,  who 
neither  would,  nor  could,  stand  aloof.  Even  with  their 
incredible  sacrifice  and  valor,  however,  the  decision  hung 
in  the  balance  until  we  of  America,  after  almost  fatal 
hesitation,  finally  comprehended  what  those  steadfast 
nations  and  their  allies  were  really  fighting  for,  cast  in 
our  lot  with  righteousness  and,  having  done  so,  threw 
our  whole  heart,  backed  by  our  vast  resources  and  the 
incalculable  strength  of  our  superb  young  men,  into  the 
world  conflict  for  democracy. 

Because  ours  has  been  the  final,  and  therefore  the 
determining  influence,  because  of  President  Wilson's  re- 
markable state  papers  defining  the  true  issues  of  the  con- 
flict, and  because  of  the  unique  geographical  and  finan- 
cial position  of  the  United  States,  we  have  not  only  had 
a  dominant  voice  at  the  peace-table,  but  also  are  looked 
to  for  leadership  in  the  coming  rehabilitation  of  the 
world.  Needless  to  say,  the  problems  of  reconstruction 
are  tremendous,  involving  such  far-reaching  matters  as 
trade,  finance,  international  relations,  domestic  read- 
justments, especially  in  the  field  of  labor,  the  social 

254 


THE  MAIN  OBJECTIVES  255 

control  of  public  services  and,  in  its  widest  meaning, 
education. 

In  that  last  broad  field  there  is  a  section  —  originally 
a  very  small  plot,  but  now  of  goodly  acreage  —  which  we 
try  vainly  to  set  apart  under  the  unsatisfactory  name  of 
vocational  education.  It  would  be  easy  to  maintain  that 
all  education,  whether  in  or  out  of  school,  is  in  its  ulti- 
mate effect  vocational;  but  it  is  a  mere  juggling  with 
terms  to  bring  the  training  of  the  lawyer  and  that  of  the 
lathe-hand  under  the  same  educational  umbrella.  When 
we  use,  in  these  days,  the  term  "  vocational  education," 
we  employ  it  in  a  very  special  sense ;  and,  in  full  recogni- 
tion of  this  limitation,  it  is  still  safe  to  assert  that  the 
future  of  this  country  and,  because  of  our  new  leader- 
ship, the  future  of  the  world,  lies  in  a  full  and  effective 
development  of  sound  vocational  education.7/  And  by 
"  sound  vocational  education  "  is  meant  the  bringing  up 
of  the  child  and  youth  in  such  a  way  that  when  he  (and 
of  course  also  she)  arrives  at  majority,  he  will  have  such 
control  of  his  mind  and  body  and  such  mastery  of  his 
environment  that  he  will  be  able,  on  the  one  hand,  to  earn 
a  good  living  in  a  congenial  way  and,  on  the  other,  to 
make  for  himself  such  a  place  in  the  community  as  will 
assure  the  preservation  and  growth  in  him  of  that  tap- 
root of  civilized  existence,  self-respect.  Moreover,  his 
education,  far  from  concealing  the  fact  that  its  major 
purpose  is  the  earning  of  a  good  living,  should  stress  that 
objective  and  should  make  it  as  clear  as  daylight  to  each 
boy  (and  girl),  to  each  young  man  (and  woman)  that 
his  chief  business  in  life  is  to  make  himself  a  good  citi- 


256  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

zen,  and  that  no  man  can  be  such  unless  he  has  qualified 
himself  to  earn,  through  acquired  skill,  knowledge,  or 
both,  as  good  a  living  as  the  body,  mind  and  general 
capacity  that  God  gave  him  will  permit.  Having  se- 
cured this  firm  foundation  of  ability  to  earn,  a  man  may 
build  thereupon  such  superstructures  of  learning,  cul- 
ture and  erudition  as  he  may  choose,  and  the  higher  he 
builds  the  better  for  him  and  for  the  world;  but  what- 
ever may  be  his  intellectual  ambitions,  they  will  come  to 
naught  in  themselves,  they  may  even  make  him  a  curse 
to  his  kind,  unless  he  is  actively  convinced  that  his  first 
duty  is  to  society,  and  that  this  duty  can  be  fulfilled  only 
through  his  making  a  contribution  to  the  material  wel- 
fare of  society  at  least  as  great  as  has  been  its  almost  im- 
measurable contribution  to  his  individual  sustenance, 
education  and  general  well-being. 

The  argument  for  vocational  education  has  more,  how- 
ever, than  this  one  corner-stone  for  its  support.  Indeed 
it  has  at  least  three  others,  each  of  them  equally  solid  and 
all  of  them  together  holding  vocational  education  "  four- 
square." These  three  other  corner-stones  are:  (1)  the 
accepted  doctrine  of  interest  which  finds  in  vocational 
education  a  stimulus  almost  wholly  absent  from  so-called 
academic  schooling;  (2)  the  fact  that  vocational  educa- 
tion enlists,  as  no  other  form  of  training  can,  the  active 
cooperation  of  all  the  community  forces;  and  (3)  the 
further  fact  that  this  type  of  training  arouses  as  few,  if 
any,  forms  of  abstract  education  do,  that  impulse  to- 
wards service  to  society  which  is  the  life-blood  of  demo- 
cratic organization  and  the  fulfilling  of  which  is  the 


THE  MAIN  OBJECTIVES  257 

chief  compensation  for  the  more  or  less  monotonous 
hardships  of  one's  daily  living. 

Furthermore,  vocational  education  directly  ministers 
to  democracy  itself,  which  requires,  for  its  perpetuation : 

(1)  a  citizen  body  made  up  of  men  and  women  who, 
through  their  power  of  earning,  are  independent,  self- 
respecting  and  with  a  substantial  stake  in  the  commu- 
nity; 

(2)  a  citizen  body  so  stimulated  by  the  educational 
process  as  to  be  both  receptive  to  new  ideas  and  hostile  to 
false  political  or  social  schemes ; 

(3 )  a  citizen  body  habituated  to  working  together  and 
quick  to  understand  the  value  of  businesslike  cooperation 
and  effective  team-play ; 

(4)  a  citizen  body  of  which  the  dominant  motive  is 
unselfish  service  for  the  common  weal. 

The  war  has  shown,  as  they  never  have  been  exhibited 
before,  our  weakness  and  our  strength  as  a  nation;  and 
all  the  blood  and  treasure  spent  will  have  been  in  vain  if 
the  fact  has  not  been  emphasized  that  the  essential 
foundations  of  enduring  democracy  are  personal  self- 
reliance,  social  common-sense,  cooperative  efficiency  and 
a  spirit  of  service  dedicated  to  the  common  weal.  Upon 
these  were  builded  the  New  England  town  meeting ;  and 
the  world,  hereafter,  if  it  is  not  to  go  war-mad  again, 
must  be  carried  on  as  the  town  meeting  was,  with  every 
man  free  to  speak  his  mind,  to  assert  his  individuality 
and  to  take  his  recognized,  properly  rewarded  share  in 
the  joint  work  of  the  community. 

Upon  that  town-meeting  basis,  educational  systems 


258  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

and  educational  methods  must  henceforth  be  squarely 
fixed.  However  pleasant  it  might  be  for  the  minority 
to  continue  to  set  itself  apart  as  a  race  of  gentlefolk  edu- 
cated, in  ways  of  mystical  erudition,  above  the  common 
herd,  the  still  unpunished  crimes  of  the  Junkers  and  their 
professorial  supporters,  the  almost  incredible  blunders 
in  diplomacy  and  strategy  of  those  so  educated  as  to  be 
out  of  touch  with  democracy,  have  taught  us,  through 
bitter  suffering,  that  no  civilization  can  endure  or  can 
even  exist  which  does  not  fully  acknowledge  the  mental, 
social  and  moral  rights  of  every  least  boy  or  girl,  of 
every  humblest  man  or  woman. 

To  such  town-meeting  standards  vocational  education 
alone  can  fully  measure  up,  for  it  touches  every  life  at 
its  fundamental  point :  that  of  working  and  earning,  it 
can  assure  interest  on  the  part  of  every  pupil  by  linking 
itself  up  with  the  problem  of  his  daily  life,  it  can  weld 
the  whole  community  into  a  great  common  force  for  the 
promotion  of  the  common  training,  it  can  make  plain  to 
every  individual  the  fact  that  life  is  service  and  that  he 
who  learns  most  serves  best. 

Convinced  of  the  soundness  of  these  premises,  I  ven- 
ture to  draw  from  them  certain  conclusions  as  to  what 
should  be  the  main  objectives  not  only  of  our  schools  and 
colleges,  but  of  those  many  other  social  agents  which 
take  an  active  part  in  promoting  sound  education  for 
life  in  a  democracy. 

Education,  it  is  plain,  is  training  for  responsibility; 
and  the  chief  responsibilities  of  a  human  being  are:  (1) 
towards  himself;  (2)  towards  his  family;  (3)  towards 


THE  MAIN  OBJECTIVES  259 

the  community;  (4)  towards  the  state  and  nation;  and 
(5)  towards  the  world  as  a  whole.  Since  the  sense  of 
responsibility  takes  its  rise  in  a  state  of  mind  rather  than 
in  a  body  of  information,  it  is  not  easy  to  lay  out 
courses  of  study  covering  those  five  fields,  but  it  is  pos- 
sible to  indicate  some  of  the  objectives  towards  which 
those  courses  should  aspire.  The  war  has  emphasized 
those  objectives  and  has  quickened  the  general  desire  to 
make  our  educational  processes  function,  as  thus  far 
they  seldom  have,  in  such  a  way  as  to  produce  healthy 
and  competent  men  and  women,  sound  home  life,  an  in- 
telligent and  responsible  citizenship,  a  people  keenly 
alive  to  the  necessity  of  cooperation  not  only  within  the 
nation  itself,  but  also  throughout  the  civilized  world. 

The  first  objective  of  education  should  be  the  securing 
of  citizens  stronger  in  body,  wiser  in  matters  of  health 
and  sanitation,  more  profoundly  convinced  that  disease 
wilfully  acquired  —  and  most  diseases,  from  that  common 
ailment  which  we  call  a  cold  down  to  that  equally  com- 
mon scourge  which  we  do  not  call  at  all,  are  wilfully 
acquired  —  is  a  sin  against  ourselves,  against  society, 
against  that  Power  which  makes  each  of  us  for  a  lifetime 
the  responsible  guardian  of  a  human  body.  Among 
other  useful  things,  the  draft  demonstrated  the  folly  of 
teaching  boys  the  laws  of  Draco,  while  neglecting  to 
teach  them  even  the  simplest  principles  of  health. 

A  second  educational  objective  should  be  a  rational, 
definite  preparation  of  every  boy  and  girl  for  that  voca- 
tion which  practically  every  one  of  them  is  sure  to  fol- 
low :  the  vocation  of  being  a  father  or  mother  or,  at  least, 


260  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

a  member  in  some  capacity  of  a  family  group.  The  one 
of cupation :  the  creation,  support  and  rearing  of  a  fam- 
ily, which  substantially  every  one  of  us  is  certain  to  fol- 
low, not  only  is  sedulously  ignored,  but  is  so  obscured 
by  ignorant  whisperings  and  obscene  innuendoes,  that 
most  young  men  and  women  approach  marriage  and  its 
responsibilities  not  only  in  lamentable  but,  too  often,  in 
evil  ignorance.  For  the  supreme  vocation  there  is,  as 
yet,  no  vocational  training  worthy  of  the  name. 

A  third  main  objective  should  be  the  fitting  of  every 
individual,  definitely  and  specifically,  for  some  occupa- 
tion through  which  he  can  make  a  real  contribution  to 
the  material,  mental  or  moral  welfare  of  society.  To 
spend  billions  in  compelling  boys  and  girls  to  go  to  school 
and  then  to  turn  them  adrift  with  no  definite  capacity  to 
earn  and  with  no  guide  to  the  complex  roads  of  indus- 
try, is  as  unfair  to  youth  as  it  is  harmful  to  society. 

A  fourth  objective  should  be  the  arousing  and  teach- 
ing of  every  boy  and  girl,  of  every  man  and  woman,  both 
native  and  immigrant,  to  be  an  intelligently  responsible 
citizen  of  the  United  States.  Industrial  exploitation 
without  educational  responsibility  is  no  longer  to  be  tol- 
erated. 

A  fifth  objective  should  be  the  creation  in  every  Amer- 
ican community  of  an  intelligent  attitude  towards  the  rest 
of  the  world,  a  new  feeling  of  obligation  to  those  coun- 
tries with  so  many  of  whom  we  have  just  been  compan- 
ions-in-arms  and  fellow-fighters  for  democracy.  Pro- 
vincialism and  hatred  of  foreigners  simply  because  they 
are  foreign  have  no  place  in  a  country  made  up,  as  ours 


THE  MAIN  OBJECTIVES  261 

is,  of  immigrants  and  their  descendants,  in  a  country  des- 
tined to  be  a  leader,  and  perhaps  the  leader,  of  a  league 
to  maintain  and,  if  need  be,  to  enforce  peace  among  the 
nations. 

And,  finally,  through  these  five  tangible  objectives 
should  run  the  golden  thread  of  profound  conviction  that 
individuals,  communities,  states  and  nations  are  in  the 
hands  of  forces  as  omnipotent  as  they  are  unseen,  forces 
which  have  laid  down  as  inexorably  for  Kaisers  and 
Croesuses  as  for  plain  John  'Smiths,  the  everlasting  laws 
of  right  and  the  unescapable  punishments  of  wrong.  If 
the  war  has  taught  nothing  else,  it  should  have  con- 
vinced mankind  that  education  cannot  ignore  the  great 
issues  of  morality. 

With  these  fundamental  objectives  in  view,  education, 
now  that  the  war  is  over,  must  embrace,  if  it  is  to  meet 
the  new  demands,  courses  in  right  physical  living,  in 
homemaking,  in  civics,  in  economics,  in  politics,  in  for- 
eign relations,  in  ethics  and  religion,  simplified,  if  need 
be,  to  meet  the  needs  of  youthful  or  sluggish  minds,  of 
the  native  with  scant  opportunities  and  of  the  foreigner 
with  handicaps.  Substantially  all  such  courses  are  in 
essence  vocational,  since  the  making  of  a  home,  the  ful- 
filling of  one's  obligations  as  a  citizen,  the  living  of  an 
effective  life,  are  life-long  vocations  common  to  us  all. 
But,  in  addition,  every  boy  and  girl,  every  young  man  and 
woman,  should  be  given  specific  training  in  some  in- 
dustry, business  or  occupation,  some  art  or  other  useful 
activity  through  which,  because  it  makes  a  contribution 
to  human  well-being,  he  will  be  able,  sooner  or  later,  to 


262  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

gain,  if  he  so  choose,  a  livelihood.  Whether  or  not  he 
needs  or  intends  to  pursue  this  specific  vocation,  he 
should  be  required  to  fit  himself  for  vocational  service, 
for  only  in  this  way  can  he  make  return  to  society  for 
what  society  has  done  for  him.  Millions  of  men  for 
more  than  four  years  unselfishly  mobilized  themselves, 
as  a  matter  of  course,  to  face  death,  because  only  through 
such  giving  could  the  Allied  nations,  and  civilization  it- 
self be  preserved.  But  there  is  an  equal  obligation  upon 
every  citizen  to  give  himself/with  equal  unselfishness,  in 
times  of  peace ;  for  the  enemies  of  peace-time :  enemies  of 
health,  enemies  of  the  household,  enemies  of  social  order 
and  progress,  enemies  of  self-reliance,  of  self-respect,  of 
all  that  makes  uplifting  civilization  different  from  de- 
grading barbarism,  will  be  as  real  and  portentous  in  the 
years  to  come  as  the  field-gray  hordes,  the  myriad  mu- 
nitions, the  hideous  engines  and  poisons  of  the  Central 
Powers  were  from  July,  1914  to  November,  1918.  And 
because,  during  this  world  struggle,  most  of  the  civilized 
world  relapsed,  some  from  evil  design  and  some  for  self- 
protection,  into  a  barbarism  horrible  to  contemplate, 
there  will  be  such  need  as  never  before  to  meet  valiantly 
and  unitedly  those  enemies  of  civilization  against  which 
sound  education  is  the  chief,  if  not  indeed  the  only  wea- 
pon. Those  enemies  are  intangible,  but  the  weapons  of 
education  to  be  used  against  them  must  be  very  tangible, 
very  immediate,  very  up-to-date.  Epidemics,  social  dis- 
eases, divorce,  graft,  chicanery,  political  incompetency, 
financial  panics,  "bread  lines,"  trade  hates,  chauvinism, 
all  the  evil  brood  that  lie  in  wait  to  overwhelm  the  igno- 


THE  MAIN  OBJECTIVES  263 

rant,  the  slothful,  the  "  penny-wise,"  the  dishonest,  can 
be  met  and  overcome,  not  by  a  small  group  of  superior 
persons  educated  in  special  and  esoteric  ways ;  they  can 
be  conquered  only  by  a  great  democratic  army  made  up 
of  all  the  people,  each  of  them  able  to  make  some  specific 
contribution  to  the  good  of  society,  each  of  them  with 
some  stake  in  that  society,  each  of  them  educated  not  in 
the  wisdom  of  past  centuries,  whose  problems  are  not 
their  problems,  but  in  the  wisdom  of  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury, which  has  known  and  seen  such  things,  which  in 
the  coming  generations  will  experience  such  other  things 
as  make  the  wars  of  Persia,  the  niceties  of  Greek,  the 
campaigns  of  Caesar,  the  philosophies  of  the  Renais- 
sance, the  intricacies  of  higher  mathematics,  even  the 
speeches  of  Burke  and  the  "  Rime  of  the  Ancient  Mar- 
iner "  appear  but  as  the  crackling  of  verbal  thorns  under 
an  empty  pot. 

Vocational  education  cannot  in  itself  or  by  itself  solve 
the  problem  of  that  new  world  which  has  emerged  from 
the  fires  of  the  great  war;  but  unless  it  is  utilized,  ex- 
panded and  made  one  of  the  chief  instruments  of  human 
training  we  shall  not  have  a  world  made  "  safe  for  de- 
mocracy," we  shall  not  have  a  truly  democratic  world  at 
all.  For  the  vocational  motive,  whether  it  be  the  voca- 
tion of  making  a  home,  the  vocation  of  making  a  living 
or  the  vocation  of  securing  leadership  in  the  community, 
is  the  really  dominant  motive  of  each  unit  of  the  modern 
state.  And  each  of  these  units  should  be  brought  face  to 
face,  in  his  impressionable  and  acquisitive  years,  with 
the  fact  that  he  is  in  the  world  not  as  a  guest,  not  as  a 


264  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

drone,  not  as  a  seeker  of  his  own  selfish  ends;  but 
that  he  is  here  to  work  out  that  dominant  vocational 
motive  as  an  integral  element  in  the  great  engine  of 
civilization,  and  that  this  engine  will  break  down  unless 
he  performs,  willingly  and  intelligently,  his  part  as  a 
homemaker,  a  community  supporter,  an  effective  con- 
tributor to  the  commonwealth,  a  genuine  factor  in  the 
upbuilding  of  the  nation  and  the  world. 


A  NATIONAL   SERVICE  YEAR 

To  have  seen  daily  in  Washington  and  in  so  many 
other  centres  of  the  United  States  hundreds  of  magnifi- 
cently well-set-up  young  soldiers;  to  have  witnessed  at 
the  cantonments  the  almost  magical  transformation  of 
the  slouched  hoodlum  into  the  well-groomed,  alert  youth 
in  uniform ;  to  have  followed  the  careers  of  even  the  rank 
and  file,  to  say  nothing  of  the  officers,  of  the  American 
soldiery  in  France,  was  to  convert  even  a  pacifist  into  be- 
lief in  some  form  of  universal  discipline.  Even  those 
who  have  long  believed  that  education  in  the  United 
States  has  suffered  grievously  through  lack  of  general, 
sound  discipline,  were  astonished  by  what  the  War  for 
Democracy  has  shown.  The  readiness  to  serve,  the 
amenableness  to  authority,  the  alertness  of  mind  and 
body  under  proper  stimulus,  and  the  seriousness  of  atti- 
tude towards  the  grave  questions  of  international  war- 
fare were  as  marked  among  all  types  of  American  youth 
as  the  most  enthusiastic  patriot  could  desire.  By  the 
very  act  of  mobilizing,  the  manhood  power  of  the  United 
States  was  raised  to  a  degree  that,  measuring  it  in  mere 
dollars  and  cents,  was  worth  all  the  money  cost.  And 
those  splendid  youth  who,  in  order  that  the  Teuton  men- 
ace might  be  forever  laid,  were  called  upon  to  give  their 
lives  in  sacrifice,  won  a  double  victory:  the  destruction 

265 


266  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

of  autocracy  and  the  redemption,  as  well  as  the  vindica- 
tion, of  democracy. 

They  performed  this  second  service  through  teaching 
this  chief  experimenter  in  democracy,  the  United  States, 
that  a  republic  cannot  be  maintained  by  occasional  ballot- 
ing, by  voluminous  legislation  or  by  perfervid  oratory; 
that  it  can  be  preserved  only  through  organized  service 
and  intelligent  self-sacrifice.  What  the  present  youth 
of  the  country  so  nobly  rose  to  perform  under  the  stimu- 
lus of  threatening  disaster,  all  the  youth  of  all  genera- 
tions must  do  under  the  sober  teachings  of  daily,  peace- 
ful living.  In  making  such  sacrifices  and  in  rendering 
such  service,  those  youth  of  the  coming  generations  will 
be  giving  themselves,  moreover,  a  strength  of  body  and 
mind,  a  gravity  of  purpose  and  a  breadth  of  education 
that  were  foreign  to  and,  indeed,  impossible  in  that  time 
before  the  great  war  when  the  attitude  of  the  average 
American  was  not,  eagerly,  ''What  can  I  give?"  but, 
clamorously,  "  What  am  I  to  get  ?  " 

If,  then,  we  are  to  make  the  sacrifices  of  the  war 
worth  while,  if  we  are  to  emerge  from  this  time  of  hor- 
ror a  stronger  rather  than  a  weaker  nation,  we  must  at 
once  begin  to  plan  for  some  system  of  universal  service 
which  will  organize  us  into  a  real  democracy,  which  will 
make  us  really  prepared,  not  for  the  waging  of  aggres- 
sive war,  but  for  the  defense  of  international  peace,  and 
which  will  impress  upon  every  man,  woman  and  child 
in  the  United  States  what  American  citizenship  actually 
means. 

It  would  be  presumptuous  for  any  individual  to  at- 


A  NATIONAL  SERVICE  YEAR  267 

tempt  to  lay  down  a  comprehensive  plan  for  the  organi- 
zation of  the  citizenship  of  the  United  States ;  but  there 
are  certain  fundamental  principles  which  must  form  the 
basis  of  any  such  organization.  Those  principles  can- 
not be  too  early  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  country, 
in  order  that  they  may  have  that  full  discussion  which  is 
an  essential  preliminary  to  federal  or  state  legislation. 
However  men  may  differ  as  to  the  manner  of  putting 
them  into  effect,  the  following  principles  seem  funda- 
mental to  any  plan  of  National  Service  which  will  be 
really  effective  in  bringing  about  those  ends  concern- 
ing which  all  thoughtful  citizens  of  the  United  States 
are  in  the  main  agreed. 

Since  this  national  service  is  for  the  purpose  of  teach- 
ing democracy  and  of  making  the  country  in  fact,  as  well 
as  in  name,  a  republic,  it  must  be  truly  universal,  includ- 
ing every  person,  male  and  female,  born  in  the  United 
States,  or  coming  to  its  shores  before  the  period  of  actual 
old  age. 

With  the  exception  of  those  foreigners  who  may  be 
admitted  to  the  country  after  their  twenty-fifth  year, 
this  service  should  be  exacted  between  the  ages  of  six- 
teen and  twenty-five.  The  lower  limit  is  fixed  by  the  fact 
that  service  under  sixteen  cannot  be,  as  a  rule,  of  much 
value ;  and  the  upper  limit  is  determined  by  the  necessity 
for  getting  this  service  out  of  the  way  before  a  man  or 
woman  settles  down  to  his  chief  business  in  life :  that  of 
rearing  a  family  and  of  making  for  himself  and  for  them 
an  effective  career. 

While,  for  the  sake  of  physique,  the  training  should 


268  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

have  a  daily  portion  of  drill  of  some  kind,  and  while,  for 
the  sake  of  morale,  it  should  include  steady,  definite  and 
unrelenting  discipline,  the  aim  of  this  drill  and  discipline 
should  be  only  indirectly  military,  and  the  object  of  the 
training  should  be,  not  occasional,  feverish  service  in 
war,  but  daily,  unending,  humdrum  service  in  peace. 
Emphasis  in  the  training  should  be  laid,  therefore,  not  on 
its  military  aspects,  but  upon  the  mastery  of  some  voca- 
tion, or  avocation,  which  is  of  real  use  to  the  country. 
Not  less  than  one,  and  not  more  than  two  hours  daily 
might  well  be  given  to  drill  of  some  kind;  but  the  major 
portion  of  at  least  an  eight-hour  day  should  be  devoted 
to  the  organized,  serious  and  intensive  training  of  the 
youth  in  something  which  is  acknowledged  to  be  of  real 
value  to  agriculture,  to  manufacturing,  to  commerce,  to 
the  professions  or  to  the  general  well-being  of  society. 

In  order  to  make  the  training  worth  while,  it  should 
occupy  at  least  an  entire  year.  This  may  seem  a  large 
contribution  of  time  to  exact  from  every  citizen;  but  it 
is  a  contribution  that  will  yield  manifold  return  to  him  as 
well  as  to  society;  and,  even  were  it  a  pure  gift  to  the 
state,  it  is  a  very  small  return  to  make  for  what  every 
individual  receives  in  general  service,  definite  education 
and  individual  care  from  the  community,  to  say  nothing 
of  that  vast  inheritance  of  civilization  which  has  come  to 
him  as  a  matter  of  course.  Moreover,  the  year  of  serv- 
ice can  and  should  be  woven  in  with  his  school  and  col- 
lege training,  if  the  youth  is  pursuing  education  beyond 
the  sixteenth  year;  while,  if  he  has  gone  to  work,  the 
training  can  be  linked  up  with  his  daily  duties  through 


A  NATIONAL  SERVICE  YEAR  269 

some  plan  of  cooperation  between  school  —  or  college  — 
and  industry  in  such  a  way  that  his  career  may  not  be  in- 
terrupted, and  that  he  may,  if  necessary,  keep  on  earning 
money  while  fulfilling  this  obligation.  In  that  case,  the 
year  of  service  might  be  extended  over  two,  or  even 
three,  years  of  actual  time.  Furthermore,  where  the 
responsibilities  of  the  youth  are  such  as  to  require  that 
his  dependents  have  support  while  he  is  rendering  na- 
tional service,  there  should  be  devised  some  system  along 
the  lines  of  the  War  Risk  Insurance  Law,  under  which 
those  dependents  may  be  cared  for  while  the  service  is  be- 
ing given.  In  such  case,  however,  the  aid  from  the  gov- 
ernment should  be  treated  purely  as  an  advance,  to  be 
eventually  paid  back  and  to  be  safeguarded  by  some  plan 
of  insurance  upon  the  life  of  the  worker. 

What,  roughly  speaking,  should  be  included  in  this 
year  of  training  for  national  service?  It  should  pro- 
vide, in  the  first  place,  for  a  thorough  overhauling  of  the 
citizen  from  the  medical  and  hygienic  point  of  view.  He 
should  have  a  comprehensive  physical  examination, 
should  receive  such  surgical  or  medical  treatment  as  may 
be  necessary  to  bring  him  nearer  to  full  physical  effi- 
ciency, and  should  be  given  such  general  teaching  in  mat- 
ters of  hygiene,  sanitation  and  physical  welfare  as  all 
citizens  should  have,  together  with  such  special  in- 
struction as  each  particular  case  may  require.  Were 
nothing  else  than  this  physical  "  tuning  up "  accom- 
plished in  the  national  service  year,  the  resulting  increase 
in  national  well-being  would  more  than  cover  the  entire 
cost. 


270  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

The  service  should  include,  in  the  second  place,  daily 
exercise  of  a  military  type  designed  to  straighten  the 
figure,  develop  alertness,  quicken  the  circulation  and 
teach  men  and  women  to  act  promptly  and  in  concert  for 
a  common  end.  Much  of  the  daily  drill  practised  in  the 
modern  camp  is  admirably  suited  to  these  purposes,  and 
most  of  it  is  as  good  for  women  as  for  men.  Further- 
more, it  would  probably  be  desirable  to  include  in  the  ser- 
vice year  at  least  three  months'  experience  in  the  open, 
in  properly  organized  camps,  where,  while  pursuing  in 
modified  form  his  vocational  training,  the  youth  would 
be  getting  that  bracing  out-door  experience  (adapted, 
of  course,  to  the  greater  age)  that  has  been  found  to  be 
of  such  service  in  the  "  Scout "  training  of  boys  and  girls. 

The  service  year  should  make  provision,  next,  for  the 
training  of  students  in  the  fundamentals  of  ethics,  of 
politics,  of  what  it  means  to  be  a  citizen  of  a  genuine 
republic.  Much  of  this  teaching  can  be  general,  but 
some  of  it  must  be  carefully  individual,  and,  in  many  in- 
stances, there  will  be  needed  preliminary,  or  concurrent, 
teaching  of  the  common  school  studies  or  even  of  Eng- 
lish to  recently-arriving  foreigners. 

As  already  stated,  however,  the  major  portion  of  each 
day  of  the  service  year  should  be  given  to  serious  and 
supervised  training  in  some  vocation  which  is  of  definite 
and  recognized  value  to  the  common  welfare.  In  most 
instances,  it  would  be  preferable  to  have  this  training 
cover  some  avocation,  something  perhaps  quite  disasso- 
ciated from  the  vocation  that  he  is  pursuing  or  is  plan- 
ning to  pursue.  This  is  desirable,  partly  to  emphasize 


A  NATIONAL  SERVICE  YEAR  271 

the  very  special  character  of  this  service  year,  and 
mainly  that  the  student  may  have  another  "  string  to  his 
bow  "  in  the  working  life  that  is  ahead.  Particularly  is 
it  important  that  those  who  are  to  follow  "head"  voca- 
tions should  give  a  large  part  of  this  year  to  the  training 
of  the  "  hand,"  and  that  those  who  are  likely  to  be  work- 
ers with  their  hands,  should  give  a  major  portion  of  the 
service  year  to  the  training  of  their  heads.  Not  only 
will  their  outlook  and  their  opportunities  thus  be  greatly 
broadened,  but  they  will  learn  to  appreciate,  as  in  no 
better  way,  the  attitude  of  the  "  other  man."  A  toler- 
ance which  has  grown  out  of  knowledge  lies  at  the  very 
heart  of  successful  democratic  living. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  the  training  suggested  is 
to  be  provided  mainly  through  public  schools  and  colleges 
and  that,  while  it  must  of  necessity  be  under  Federal  su- 
pervision, the  agencies  to  carry  it  out  will  be  the  state 
and  local  educational  authorities,  cooperating,  of  course, 
with  those  citizens,  such  as  manufacturers,  farmers, 
merchants,  workmen,  etc.,  and  with  those  organizations, 
such  as  the  labor  unions,  granges,  women's  clubs,  par- 
ent-teacher associations,  etc.,  that  can  be  of  direct  as- 
sistance in  carrying  forward  this  common  citizenship 
work. 

When  the  boy  or  girl  is  able  to  remain  in  school  or 
college  beyond  the  sixteenth  year,  this  work  would  be  car- 
ried on  therein,  but  not  merely  by  calling  one  out  of  the 
years  of  the  high  school  or  college  the  service  year.  On 
the  contrary,  it  must  be  a  special  year  set  apart  for  ser- 
vice, its  training  carried  on  in  cooperation  with  industry, 


272  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

agriculture  or  commerce  and  with  the  whole  outside  com- 
munity, and  the  work  covering,  as  a  rule,  some  line  of 
activity  other  than  that  for  which  the  high  school  or  the 
college  has  set  out  to  train  the  pupil.  To  excuse  a  youth 
from  this  service  because  he  is  fortunate  enough  to  be 
following  a  higher  training,  or  to  make  it  merely  inci- 
dental to  that  training,  would  be  to  defeat  the  main  ob- 
ject of  the  service  year :  the  emphasizing  of  the  fact  that, 
in  a  democracy,  those  who  receive  the  most  training  must 
make  the  largest  return.  From  the  youth  who  takes 
this  training  as  a  part  of  his  school  or  college  career, 
there  should  be  exacted  higher  standards  of  achieve- 
ment than  from  those  who  are  obliged  to  cease  their  for- 
mal education  at  an  earlier  age. 

For  the  boy  or  girl  who  must  give  up  regular  school- 
ing before  the  sixteenth  year,  arrangements  will  have  to 
be  made  between  the  industry  in  which  he  is  engaged 
and  some  school  or  college  chosen  to  cooperate  in  the 
work  of  training  him  during  his  national  service  year. 
The  simplest  arrangement  would  probably  be  through 
some  form  of  cooperative  part-time  training  in  which  the 
boy  or  girl  spends  half  his  working  time  in  a  gainful  oc- 
cupation and  the  other  half  in  school  or  college.  This 
would  involve,  of  course,  spreading  the  national  service 
"  year "  over  twenty-four  or  even  thirty-six  or  forty- 
eight  months.  Another  method  —  practicable  in  indus- 
tries sufficiently  large  —  would  be  to  carry  the  school 
into  the  industry,  mobilizing  each  year  all  the  youth  of 
national  service  age  who  have  not  rendered  that  service, 
and  utilizing  every  force  possible  inside  and  outside  the 


A  NATIONAL  SERVICE  YEAR  273 

industry,  to  make  that  training  of  the  highest  civic  ser- 
vice. A  third  way  would  be  to  take  the  youth  out  of 
industry  for  a  year,  to  subsidize  him  to  such  an  extent 
as  may  be  necessary  to  relieve  the  burden  thus  imposed 
upon  his  dependents  and  to  exact  from  him  eventual  pay- 
ment for  such  subsidy  upon  easy  and  long-extended 
terms. 

One  of  the  essentials  to  be  emphasized,  however,  is 
that  wherever  and  however  this  service  year  training  be 
carried  on,  it  must  be  serious,  continuous,  exacting  and 
purposeful ;  that  the  youth  must  undertake  it  in  a  spirit 
similar  to  that  in  which  our  youth  entered  the  great 
war;  and  that  no  possible  way  can  be  opened  through 
which  any  person  between'  sixteen  and  twenty-five  pos- 
sessed of  any  mind  at  all,  can  be  relieved  from  it.  To 
make  any  exceptions  whatever  would  destroy  the  plan. 

Furthermore,  the  obligation  of  service  must  not  end 
with  this  single  year.  Every  person  who  has  been  grad- 
uated from  the  full  service  year  should,  for  at  least  ten 
years  thereafter,  give  at  least  a  week  and  possibly  a 
longer  time,  annually,  to  the  government.  During  that 
period  he  would  be  again  physically  examined  and  ad- 
vised, would  renew  contact,  if  necessary,  with  the  service 
year  avocation,  and  would  prove  in  various  ways  to  those 
in  authority  not  only  that  he  is  still  able  to  render  the 
special  services  comprehended  in  his  year,  but  also  other 
services  in  which,  as  time  progresses,  he  is  becoming 
ever  more  competent.  In  order  to  make  this,  as  well  as 
the  original  service  year,  possible,  there  must  be  estab- 
lished an  efficient  system  of  annual  national  registration. 


274  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

The  value  of  such  registration  in  other  directions  can 
hardly  be  exaggerated.  If  it  be  objected  to  as  an  in- 
fringement upon  personal  liberty,  a  sufficient  answer  is 
that,  as  against  the  genuine  promotion  of  the  general 
welfare  such  as  the  keeping  track  of  its  citizenship  un- 
questionably is,  the  citizen  of  a  democracy  has  no  in- 
dividual rights. 

What  is  the  purpose  of  the  national  service  year? 
Mainly  to  upbuild  and  to  cement  the  structure  of  Ameri- 
can democracy.  Only  that  person  or  that  thing  to  which 
one  has  given  substantial  service  does  one  respect  and 
love;  and  the  millions  of  the  people  of  the  United  States, 
of  both  long  established  and  newly  acquired  citizenship, 
will  never  become  true  citizens  until  they  have  been 
brought  face  to  face  with  the  fact  that  the  price  of  lib- 
erty is  not  merely  eternal  vigilance,  but  also  unceasing 
service.  The  year  will  give  them  that  essential  experi- 
ence; incidentally  it  will  increase  their  physical  and 
economic  efficiency;  and,  whether  or  not  they  form,  as 
Americans  are  so  fond  of  doing,  a  "  national  service  year 
society,"  they  will  in  fact  constitute  an  association  of 
genuine  patriots,  who  have  proved  their  loyalty  through 
something  far  better  than  words,  something  that  has 
brought  substantial  good  to  the  country  of  their  citizen- 
ship. The  "solidarity  of  service"  that  will  bind  these 
workers  together  will  be  one  of  the  strongest  forces  in 
American  democracy. 

The  more  tangible  purpose,  however,  of  this  service 
year  will  be  that  of  national  preparedness,  —  to  main- 
tain peace  if  possible,  to  wage  war  if  necessary.  The 


A  NATIONAL  SERVICE  YEAR  275 

war  will  have  been  in  vain  if  one  of  its  certain  results  is 
not  some  strong  association  of  the  nations  to  prevent 
the  recurrence  of  the  needless  horrors  of  the  dire  four 
and  a  third  years.  Membership  of  the  United  States  in 
such  a  league  will  be  futile,  however,  unless  the  country 
so  organizes  itself  as  to  be  able  to  enforce  the  decisions  of 
the  league  should  they  be  flouted  by  such  outlaw  nations 
as  the  Central  Powers  proved  themselves  to  be. 

The  mere  existence  of  such  a  potential  citizen-army 
would  make  the  United  States  so  strong,  however,  that 
the  decrees  of  a  league  of  which  it  is  a  part  would  be  in 
little  danger  of  being  set  aside;  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  national  service  year  would  not  be  martial  enough  to 
build  up  a  military  caste  eager  to  put  its  training  to  the 
test  of  actual  war.  Nevertheless,  if  war  should  come, 
the  whole  country  would  be  organized  and  could  be 
quickly  trained  for  mobilization  as  a  fighting  force,  as 
a  force  able  to  provide  munitions  of  war,  as  a  force  com- 
petent to  do  at  once  what  it  took  the  United  States  more 
than  a  year  just  to  begin  to  do. 

In  the  event  of  a  great  calamity  such  as  that  of  the 
San  Francisco  fire  or  the  Messina  earthquake,  —  even 
they  seem  small  in  contrast  writh  the  war  —  those  who 
had  passed  through  the  national  service  year  could  at 
once  be  mobilized  for  effective  service ;  and  in  the  event 
of  a  lesser,  comparatively  local  catastrophe,  the  national 
service  men  and  women  of  that  region  could  instantly  be 
brought  together  in  a  corresponding  way. 

The  war  has  made  it  plain  that,  if  the  United  States 
is  to  take  the  place  that  should  be  hers  in  the  family  of 


276  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

nations  and  in  the  development  of  civilization,  she  can  no 
longer  pursue  a  laissez-faire  policy  in  such  vital  matters 
as  that  of  immigration,  of  illiteracy,  of  vocational  effi- 
ciency and  of  the  obligations  of  citizenship.  She  must 
sit  down  squarely  before,  and  develop  a  policy  regarding, 
the  vast  problem  of  democracy  in  general  and  of  the  im- 
portant part  which  she  must  play,  for  good,  in  its  work- 
ing out.  The  lesson  above  all  other  lessons  which  the 
war  has  taught  is  the  obligation  of  service  on  the 
part  of  those  who  aspire  to  political  and  economic  free- 
dom. That  lesson  cannot  be  left,  for  its  learning,  to 
chance  or  to  the  slow  process  of  education  through  in- 
dividual experience.  It  is  a  lesson  which  must  be  organ- 
ized and  taught  until  it  becomes  the  political  religion  of 
substantially  all  the  people  of  the  United  States  and,  in- 
deed, of  all  democratic  nations.  One  of  the  easiest  and 
most  effective  ways  of  organizing  it  and  of  making  it  a 
factor  in  the  life  and  in  the  thinking  of  every  citizen  is 
to  establish  a  national  service  year  through  which  every 
man  and  woman  who  wants  the  blessing  of  "  life,  liberty 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness "  under  the  Stars  and 
Stripes  must  pay  for  it  through  a  service  that,  while 
enormously  strengthening  the  country,  will  at  the  same 
time  vastly  increase  the  physical  welfare,  the  intellec- 
tual strength,  the  vocational  competence,  the  sense  of 
social  solidarity  and  the  moral  well-being  of  every  single 
citizen. 

Following  are,  in  essence,  the  fundamental  principles 
which,  it  would  seem,  should  underlie  any  system  of  na- 
tional service : 


A  NATIONAL  SERVICE  YEAR  277 

It  should  be  really  universal,  including  every  young  person  of 
both  sexes. 

It  should  be  exacted  between  the  ages  of  sixteen  or  possibly 
eighteen,  and  twenty-five. 

It  should  be  a  combination  of  military  and  vocational  (or  avo- 
cational)  service,  with  the  emphasis  strongly  upon  the 
vocational  side. 

As  far  as  possible,  it  should  be  given  as  a  part  of  school,  college, 
shop,  store  or  office  training,  but  should  always  be  under 
Federal  supervision. 

Service  should  be  for  the  whole  of  at  least  one  continuous  year 
(or  half  of  two  continuous  years)  and  for  a  certain  part  of 
a  number  of  years  thereafter. 

The  person  who  has  rendered  the  year  of  service  should  give  at 
least  one  or  two  weeks  each  year  for  perhaps  ten  years 
thereafter,  to  some  sort  of  continued  course,  both  military 
and  vocational. 

The  year's  service  should  include,  for  men,  daily  military  exer- 
cises, and  for  women,  organized  calisthenics,  gymnastics  or 
a  modified  military  drill.  This  should  occupy  not  less  than 
one  hour  or  more  than  two  hours  per  day. 

The  rest  of  the  "  National  Service  Year "  should  be  given 
to  the  organized,  serious  and  intensive  following  of  some 
trade,  occupation,  vocation  or  avocation  which  is  of  dis- 
tinct service  to  the  country  either:  (1)  in  war,  (2)  in  the 
support  of  war,  (3)  in  the  furthering  of  agriculture,  indus- 
try or  commerce,  or  (4)  in  the  promotion  of  the  general 
welfare. 

Under  the  guidance  of  teachers  and  vocational  advisors,  the  per- 
son to  be  trained  should  have  wide  latitude  in  his  choice  of 
national  service. 

He  should  be  held,  however,  to  strict  performance  and  should  be 
required  to  attain  definite  standards,  varying,  of  course,  with 
the  service  and  with  the  capacity  of  the  individual. 

Where  the  service  chosen  does  not  require  for  its  mastery  the  full 


278  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

year,  the  person  so  choosing  should  be  required  to  take  other 
work  to  round  out  the  year. 

There  should  be  a  recognized  and  permanent  organization  within 
the  locality  and  throughout  the  country  of  those  performing 
this  national  service  so  as  to  promote  a  feeling  of  national 
solidarity. 

For  those  pursuing  education  beyond  the  sixteenth  or  eighteenth 
year,  the  service  should  be  dove-tailed  in  with  the  high 
school,  college  or  professional  school  training. 

For  those  leaving  school  before  the  sixteenth  or  eighteenth  year, 
the  year  of  service  should  either  be  subsidized  by  the  Fed- 
eral Government,  or  there  should  be  devised  some  plan  of 
cooperative  part-time  work  under  which,  possibly,  the  serv- 
ice might  be  spread  over  two  years :  the  youth  giving  half 
his  time  during  those  two  years  to  earning,  and  the  other 
half  to  service. 

Without  making  a  calculation  of  the  cost,  it  would  seem  best  for 
this  year  of  service  to  be  subsidized,  jointly,  by  the  Federal 
Government,  the  State  (or  local)  government,  and  the 
parent  or  guardian,  —  the  last  providing  sustenance,  and  the 
first  two  sharing,  between  them,  the  cost  of  training. 

In  that  case,  the  school,  college  or  industry  giving  the  training, 
would  be  subsidized  by  the  Federal  and  State  (or  local) 
governments,  jointly. 

The  National  Service  Year  should  include  a  thorough  physical 
overhauling,  and  "  bracing  up,"  and  there  should  be  included 
as  much  out-door  life  as  possible. 

It  might  be  desirable  to  arrange  for  spending  the  three  summer 
months  in  the  northern  states  and  any  three  months  in  the 
southern  or  Pacific  states,  in  properly  arranged  camps,  with 
the  teaching  of  much  of  the  sort  of  thing  now  given  to  boy 
scouts. 

The  service  to  be  rendered  during  this  year  by  girls  and  women 
would  include  all  the  duties  of  the  household,  nursing,  etc., 
as  well  as  vocational  work  feasible  for  women. 


A  NATIONAL  SERVICE  YEAR  279 

As  an  essential  part  of  every  course,  there  should  be  a  substantial 
amount  of  teaching  of  ethics,  civics  and  the  duties  of  a  citi- 
zen in  a  democracy. 

Where  necessary,  there  should  be  provision  for  teaching  the 
public  school  elements ;  also  English  to  foreigners. 

Where  there  are  dependents,  making  it  impossible  for  the  youth 
to  give  even  half  time  to  this  service,  there  should  be  some 
form  of  family  allowance  by  the  government,  on  the  same 
general  plan  as  that  of  the  War  Risk  Insurance  Bureau. 
Such  support,  however,  should  be  in  the  nature  of  an  obli- 
gation to  be  repaid  by  the  "  National  Service  Soldier  "  in 
subsequent  years. 

Industries  should  be  formally  brought  in,  by  requiring  their  coop- 
eration in  providing  opportunities  for  training,  in  making 
cooperative  part-time  schemes  possible,  etc.,  etc. 

Townships  and  other  political  divisions  should  be  directly  drawn 
in  by  requiring  them  to  establish  some  form  of  local  tax- 
ation to  be  directly  applied  to  the  supplementing  of  the 
Federal  allowance. 

In  the  event  of  war,  the  entire  population  which  has  been  through 
this  training  should  be  mobilized,  either  for 

(1)  war  service, 

(2)  munitions  service, 

(3)  maintenance  of  industries,  including  agriculture, 

(4)  remedial  service,  such  as  nursing,  etc., 

(5)  miscellaneous  services  called  for  by  the  dislocation 

of  war. 
In  the  case  of  a  national  calamity,  other  than  war,  such  as  a  great 

flood,  or  crop  failure,  this  same  army  should  be  mobilized 

for  such  short,  or  temporary,  service  as  the  occasion  might 

require. 
For  a  local  catastrophe,  the  army  of  that  particular  region  should 

be  mobilized  for  similar  service. 
After  having  taken  the  year's  service,  the  "  National   Service 

Soldier  "  should  make  at  least  an  annual  written  report  to 


28o  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

the  Federal  Government,  of  such  a  character  as  to  indicate 
that  he  or  she  is  still  competent  for  this  special  service,  and 
showing  also  the  additional  service  which,  with  the  progress 
of  time,  the  individual  has  fitted  himself  to  render. 
He  should  be  ready,  at  all  times,  for  such  national,  state  or  local 
service  as  his  official  training  fits  him  to  do.  Usually,  such 
service  should  be  voluntary,  but  the  State  or  the  Federal 
Government  should  have  authority  to  commandeer  it. 


SAVING  HUMAN  WASTE 

WE  have  just  experienced  the  greatest  waste  and  the 
greatest  saving  of  all  history.  The  contending  nations 
paid  daily  for  war  purposes  more  than  most  wars  have 
cost  throughout.  On  the  other  hand,  those  same  na- 
tions, some  perforce  and  some  of  their  own  volition, 
saved  more  each  day  in  food,  fuel,  clothes  and  even  such 
incidentals  as  gasolene,  than  they  ever  proportionately 
saved  before.  The  war  spendings  —  except  their  legacy 
of  debts  —  have,  fortunately,  ceased.  The  war  savings 
will  presumably  go  on,  though  in  less  .degree,  forever. 
Consequently,  it  is  not  extravagant  to  believe  that 
the  colossal  outpourings  of  wealth  which  this  orgy 
of  war  compelled  will  be  redeemed,  possibly  in  one  gener- 
ation, by  the  spirit  of  saving  that,  with  many  other  hard 
and  salutary  lessons,  the  war  taught. 

Even  though  this  view  be  too  optimistic,  the  war,  with 
frightful  personal  and  national  sorrow,  brought  home 
for  all  time  one  lesson  that  the  United  States  above  all 
other  nations  needed:  the  wickedness  and  the  needless- 
ness  of  waste.  Under  the  brandishing  of  a  certain  Big 
Stick,  we  had  begun  to  wake  up  to  the  evils  of  our  mate- 
rial wastefulness ;  but  when  some  of  those  predictions  did 
not  materialize,  —  when,  for  example,  our  hard-wood 

281 


282  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

forests  did  not  disappear  within  ten  years,  when  we 
learned  of  a  single  range  of  mountains  in  the  Southwest 
that  will  yield  ten  million  tons  of  coal  a  year  for  at  least 
three  thousand  years,  when  we  began  to  tap  the  atmos- 
phere for  nitrates  and  to  double  the  yield  of  each  acre 
of  corn  or  cotton,  we  were  in  danger  of  recovering  from 
our  national  fright  and  of  believing  again  that  Provi- 
dence has  supplied  this  favored  people  with  substantially 
unlimited  resources.  Fortunately,  however,  considera- 
tion of  the  waste  of  inanimate  products  had  turned  our 
attention  to  a  far  more  important  matter :  the  squander- 
ing, the  mistreatment,  the  failure  to  make  adequate  use 
of  that  greatest  of  natural  resources,  men  and  women. 

The  war  brought  us  face  to  face  with  the  appalling 
fact  that  we  were  and  we  are  wasting,  like  prodigals, 
these  precious  human  beings,  and  in  three  chief  ways: 
First,  by  killing  and  maiming  them  in  battle,  cutting  off 
at  the  same  time  what  would  have  been  the  high  grade 
progeny  of  thousands  of  selected  young  men;  second, 
by  complacently  permitting  civilian  conditions  which  not 
only  kill  off  a  frightful  percentage  of  children  and  youth 
before  they  can  render  any  service  to  the  world,  but 
keep  the  adult  population  in  a  state  of  low  efficiency ;  and 
third,  by  failing  to  bring  out,  through  proper  training 
and  subsequent  effective  utilization,  the  latent  powers  of 
creative  work  existing  within  almost  every  boy  and  girl. 

The  second  form  of  waste  —  that  due  to  bad  hygiene 
and  lack  of  sanitation  —  we  are  overcoming  by  sound 
and  widespread  teaching  in  the  field  of  right  living. 
The  third  form  of  waste  —  that  due  to  failure  to  bring 


SAVING  HUMAN  WASTE  283 

out  the  latent  powers  of  boys  and  girls,  and  of  men  and 
women  —  we  are  beginning  to  remedy  by  wise,  purpose- 
ful and  individualistic  education.  The  first  and  most 
wanton  form  of  waste- — that  due  to  deliberate  killing 
and  maiming  in  war  —  we  can,  and  please  God  we  will, 
put  an  end  to  by  covenanting  the  nations  to  root  up  war 
itself. 

Meanwhile,  however,  we  are  fronted  with  the  fact 
that,  in  a  little  over  four  years,  'the  world  murdered 
millions  of  men  and  caused  at  least  equal  millions  to  suf- 
fer physical  or  mental  impairment  through  violence  of 
war.  For  the  dead  we  can  do  nothing;  for  the  maimed 
living,  we  can  and  we  ought  to  do  everything  that  modern 
science,  modern  wisdom  and  modern  appreciation  of  the 
hideous  wickedness  of  waste  can  do.  The  character 
and  magnitude  of  the  responsibility  laid  upon  this  coun- 
try by  this  handicapping  of  tens  and  perhaps  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  young  men,  should  be  brought  home  to 
every  citizen  of  the  United  States.  The  federal  gov- 
ernment is  fully  awake  to  the  situation,  but  its  servants 
can  do  little  unless  behind  their  efforts  stand  the  force 
of  educated  public  opinion  and  the  support  of  enlight- 
ened public  help. 

So  long  as  war  lasted  this  country  ceased  to  be  a  huge 
group  of  individuals  voluntarily  associated  for  their 
common  welfare.  War  fused  that  group  into  an  auto- 
cratic war  machine  with  all  individual  rights  merged  into 
the  common  necessity  of  overthrowing  autocracy  for  all 
time.  From  the  one  hundred  and  ten  millions  of  us, 
that  war  machine  selected,  by  the  process  of  the  draft, 


284  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

such  special  millions  and  as  many  of  those  special  mil- 
lions as  were  needed  for  absolute,  decisive  victory;  but, 
whether  we  were  within  or  whether  we  were  without 
that  special  group,  every  one  of  us  was  an  atom  in  the 
war  machine  and  upon  each  of  us  depended  the  final  out- 
come of  the  war.  As  such  units,  we  could  function 
only  through  the  war  machine  itself,  —  which,  under  the 
Constitution,  is  the  federal  government  —  and  so  far  as 
concerned  the  war,  all  machinery  of  states  and  cities,  all 
civilian  organizations  and  all  individual  activities  and 
rights  absolutely  disappeared  until  the  one  supreme  end, 
that  of  winning  the  war,  was  attained.  The  facing  of 
this  inexorable  logic  of  a  state  of  war  is  one  of  the  hard- 
est things  to  induce  a  democracy  to  do ;  and  the  amazing 
thing  in  this  war  was  not  that  the  people  of  the  United 
States  were  so  slow  in  understanding  it,  but  that  when 
finally  aroused,  they  faced  it  so  quickly,  so  completely 
and  with  such  total  self-surrender. 

The  social  and  economic  groups  to  which  we  belonged, 
the  towns  and  states  in  which  each  of  us  had  legal  resi- 
dence were,  for  the  time  being,  merely  the  culture  in 
which  the  organism  of  war  was  nourished,  the  reserve 
out  of  which  had  to  come  the  material  and  moral  suste- 
nance of  that  fighting  body  of  millions  which  constituted 
the  actual  fighting  machine.  Whatever  was  our  per- 
sonal relationship  to  any  unit  or  units  in  that  machine, 
whatever  we,  or  those  social  and  political  organizations 
to  which  we  belonged,  did  in  connection  with  the  war, 
we  could  not  escape  the  higher  demand  of  the  war  ma- 
chine as  a  whole,  we  could  not  refuse,  any  more  than  the 


SAVING  HUMAN  WASTE  285 

soldier  could  refuse,  to  obey  its  orders  without  question 
and  without,  at  least  audible,  complaint. 

While  every  one  of  us  was  a  unit  in  the  war  machine, 
only  males  between  eighteen  and  forty-five  could  be  ele- 
ments in  the  actual  fighting  machine ;  and,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  those  who  got  to  the  front  were  within  compara- 
tively narrow  limits  of  age.  Moreover,  while  all  of  us 
had  to  sink  our  private  wills  into  the  public  will  of  the 
war  government,  only  those  millions  who  constituted  the 
actual  fighting  armies  were  required  to  surrender  their 
bodies,  as  well  as  their  wills,  to  the  absolute  dominion  of 
that  military  General  Staff  which,  under  its  civilian  Com- 
mander-in-Chief,  the  President,  determined  the  fate, 
from  day  to  day,  of  individual  men. 

No  government,  however,  and  especially  no  demo- 
cratic government,  could  assume  such  dictatorial  powers 
without  taking  on,  at  the  same  time,  equal  responsibility. 
Not  only  was  that  military  establishment  bound,  so  far 
as  the  exigencies  of  war  permitted,  to  conserve  the  life 
of  every  soldier,  not  only  was  it  bound  to  see  that,  while 
fighting,  he  was  fed,  clothed,  supplied  with  ammunition 
and,  in  a  military  sense,  properly  supported;  it  was  bound 
also  to  look  after  his  physical,  mental  and  moral  health, 
to  make  every  provision  for  his  rescue  and  rehabilitation 
should  he  be  wounded  or  sick,  and  to  return  him,  when 
the  war  should  be  over,  or  when  he  was  unfit  for  further 
military  service,  to  at  least  as  good  a  position  in  the  eco- 
nomic world  as  that  from  which,  by  military  process,  it 
inexorably  took  him  because  he  happened,  through 
youth,  strength  .and  comparative  freedom  from  family 


286  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

responsibilities,  to  be  fit  for  fighting  rather  than  for 
supporting  service  in  the  all-inclusive  war  machine. 

To  argue,  as  some  men  do,  that  the  work  of  getting 
these  citizen  soldiers  disabled  in  national  war  back  into 
the  economic  world  is  a  task  for  the  state  from  which 
they  came,  the  community  in  which  they  lived,  the 
churches  which  they  attended,  or  even  of  such  a  world 
wide  organization  as  the  Red  Cross,  is  not  only  to  mis- 
interpret the  Constitution  which,  in  war,  places  all  power 
and  all  responsibility  in  the  federal  government,  but  to 
do  violence  to  common  sense.  For  the  federal  govern- 
ment to  cease  its  responsibility  for  the  disabled  soldier  or 
sailor  at  the  moment  he  leaves  the  hospital,  is  as  impos- 
sible to  imagine  as  it  would  be  that  it  should  desert  him  at 
the  moment  of  his  wounding,  refusing  to  send  stretcher- 
bearers  to  bring  him  back  or  to  provide  hospitals  and 
surgeons  for  his  rehabilitation.  It  is  no  kindness  to 
patch  up  a  man's  body,  if  that  restored  organism  is  to 
be  thrown  on  the  industrial  scrap-heap.  To  mend  a  man 
just  for  the  sake  of  mending  him  is  to  do  him  an  ill  ser- 
vice. The  physical  rehabilitation,  far  from  being  an  end 
in  itself,  is  simply  the  means  for  making  him  once  more 
a  normal  being  ready  to  take  his  place,  alongside  other 
normal  beings,  in  the  great  business  of  daily  work  and 
daily  life. 

It  is  absurd  even  to  imagine  any  country,  least  of  all 
the  United  States,  leaving  its  wounded  uncared  for  on 
the  battle  field  or  untended  behind  the  lines.  But  it  is 
almost  equally  absurd  to  suppose  that  the  federal  govern- 
ment would  abandon  this  task  of  surgery  and  medicine-lQ 


SAVING  HUMAN  WASTE  287 

the  chance  kindness  of  stray  physicians,  willing  and  com- 
petent though  they  might  be.  The  work  of  functional 
restoration,  we  acknowledge  without  need  of  argument, 
is  a  task  requiring  complete  organization  by  that  power 
alone,  the  government  at  Washington,  which  can  reach 
every  man  from  every  state  and  call  to  its  assistance,  if 
need  be,  every  citizen  of  the  United  States.  But  what 
we  have  not  seen,  until  this  present  war,  is  that  this  task 
of  physical  rehabilitation  has  its  essential  complement  in 
that  of  vocational  rehabilitation.  Moreover,  for  this 
latter  task,  just  as  truly  as  for  the  former,  is  needed 
organization  complete  in  itself  and  drawing  its  authority 
from  that  only  source,  the  federal  government,  which 
can  reach  every  state  and,  if  need  be,  every  man  and 
woman  in  each  state. 

So  strongly  did  this  common-sense  view  of  the  situa- 
tion appeal  to  Congress  that,  after  due  study  and  delib- 
eration, it  passed,  unanimously  in  both  Houses,  in  June 
of  1918,  the  Vocational  Rehabilitation  Act  (known  also 
as  the  Smith-Sears  Act),  placing  as  definitely  upon  a  le- 
gally constituted  federal  board  the  responsibility  for  the 
retraining  and  placement  of  its  injured  soldiers  and 
sailors  as,  by  statute  and  by  age-long  custom,  the  re- 
sponsibility for  physical  rehabilitation  had  been  placed 
upon  those  far  older  federal  bodies,  the  Office  of  the 
Surgeon  General  of  the  Army  and  the  Bureau  of  Medi- 
cine and  Surgery  of  the  Navy.  -  ; 

Under  this  Vocational  Rehabilitation  Act,  subse- 
quently several  times  amended,  the  Federal  Board  for 
Vocational  Education,  made  up,  ex-officiis,  of  the  Sec- 


288  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

retaries  of  Agriculture,  Commerce  and  Labor  and  the 
Commissioner  of  Education,  and  of  three  other  members 
appointed  by  the  President,  is  charged  with  responsibil- 
ity for  the  placing  back  in  economic  life  and,  if  need  be, 
for  the  training  of  every  soldier  and  sailor  so  far  dis- 
abled in  military  service  as  to  be  entitled  to  compensa- 
tion under  the  War  Risk  Insurance  Law.  So  long  as 
that  soldier  or  sailor  needs  daily  hospital  care,  he  is  the 
sole  ward,  of  course,  of  the  medical  military  authorities ; 
but  from  the  moment  that  he  is  discharged  from  military 
service,  he  becomes  automatically  a  ward  of  the  Federal 
Board  for  Vocational  Education  and,  as  such  ward,  has 
established  rights  which  he  alone  and  by  his  own  free 
choice  can  surrender. 

The  chief  of  these  rights  are  two:  (1)  To  claim  the 
aid  of  the  Federal  Board  in  getting  back  into  his  old  em- 
ployment, or  into  such  new  employment  as  his  capacities 
and  his  physical  handicaps  may  make  possible;  and  (2) 
to  receive,  through  that  board,  such  training  for  em- 
ployment in  agriculture,  industry,  transportation,  com- 
merce or  the  professions,  as  his  wishes,  modified  by  the 
reasoned  views  of  the  board  as  to  his  capacities  and  the 
opportunities  in  his  special  field  of  choice,  may  deter- 
mine. Whether  the  board  shall  help  to  place  him, 
whether  it  shall  give  him  training  before  such  placement, 
is  wholly  for  the  discharged  soldier  or  sailor  to  decide; 
but,  having  elected  to  receive  training,  the  Board  as- 
sumes not  only  his  support  and  that  of  his  dependents, 
should  he  have  any,  during  the  process  of  training,  but 
undertakes  to  follow  him  up,  after  placement,  and  to 


SAVING  HUMAN  WASTE  289 

give  him  reasonable  opportunity  for  further  training 
should  the  first  venture  prove  ill-suited  to  his  capacities. 

In  order,  as  enjoined  by  the  Vocational  Rehabilitation 
Law,  "  to  effect  a  continuous  process  of  vocational  train- 
ing," the  Federal  Board  will  cooperate  to  such  extent  as 
it  may  be  invited  by  the  Surgeon  General,  in  those  voca- 
tional activities  within  the  hospital  which  are  believed  to 
have  also  high  curative  value ;  and  as  soon  as  it  is  deter- 
mined that  a  disabled  man  is  destined  for  discharge,  the 
Federal  Board,  through  agents  stationed  in  the  recon- 
struction hospitals,  advises  with  the  patient,  determines 
his  wishes,  aptitudes  and  best  prospects  for  economic  suc- 
cess, and  makes  plans,  if  he  is  vocationally  handicapped, 
for  such  a  course  of  training,  be  it  one  of  months  or  of 
several  years,  as  may  seem  necessary  for  him,  under  the 
conditions  of  his  former  lack  of  training  and  his  present 
physical  disability,  to  undertake. 

When  a  course  of  training  has  been  determined  upon 
by  the  disabled  soldier  under  advisement  of  the  board, 
it  is  conducted,  other  things  being  equal,  in  or  near  his 
former  home  or  future  place  of  employment,  and  is 
carried  on  in  that  school  or  college  (public  or  private), 
in  that  industrial  or  commercial  plant,  on  that  farm  or  in 
that  mine,  wherein,  after  proper  investigation  by  the 
board,  it  seems  likely  that  the  disabled  man  will  get  the 
best  training  for  the  field  of  work  which  he  purposes  to 
follow.  The  board  has  not  established  schools  of  its 
own,  believing  that  every  consideration  calls  for  the  use 
of  existing  agencies ;  but  the  manner  of  teaching  and  the 
contents  of  the  courses  are  determined  by  the  board  and, 


2QO  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

in  most  instances,  since  it  is  to  meet  the  special  needs  of. 
a  particular  man,  are  quite  unlike  the  formal  training 
given  in  the  conventional  school,  or  the  somewhat  hap- 
hazard training  common  in  industrial  enterprises. 

Wherever  the  training  may  be  given,  it  is  paid  for  by 
the  board,  which  is  empowered  also  to  provide,  where 
necessary,  special  equipment  and  appliances.  The  time 
and  extent  of  the  teaching  depend  upon  the  needs  and 
capacities  of  the  disabled  man ;  but  the  aim  is  always  to 
make  up,  as  far  as  may  be,  his  earlier  deficiencies  and 
to  fit  him,  if  possible,  for  a  better  economic  service  than 
that  performed  by  him  before  the  war,  or  which  he 
would  have  been  rendering  had  the  war  not  taken  place, 

As  far  as  possible,  the  job  into  which  the  man  is  to  go 
is  determined  before  his  training  is  begun,  both  that  he 
may  have  the  spur  of  a  definite  goal  and  that  his  train- 
ing may  be  focussed  upon  a  concrete  opportunity.  But 
he  is  not  hurried  in  his  training,  neither  is  he  allowed  to 
dawdle,  for  the  object  of  this  process  of  preliminary  edu- 
cation is  quite  as  much  to  make  the  man  ready  for  effi- 
cient general  service  in  the  world  as  it  is  for  effective 
immediate  service  in  the  line  of  work  which  he  has 
elected  to  follow.  It  is  as  far  from  the  intention  of  the 
board  to  produce  men  having  exaggerated  notions  as  to 
the  debt  owed  them  by  society,  as  it  is  to  turn  out  half- 
baked  workers  to  be  tolerated  simply  because  they  are  in 
some  degree  disabled.  The  jobs  which  these  men  under- 
take will  be  theirs  because  they  are  fitted  to  take  them ; 
they  will  hold  them  because  they  are  ready  to  do  a  man's 
work ;  and  while  the  board  will  see  to  it  that  they  are  not 


SAVING  HUMAN  WASTE  291 

exploited,  it  will  not  ask  any  employer  to  keep  a  disabled 
soldier  who  cannot  and  does  not  "  make  good." 

In  this  task  of  placement  the  board  has  the  specific 
right,  under  the  law,  to  ask  the  cooperation  of  the  De- 
partment of  Labor,  and  it  has  the  general  right,  under 
the  common  debt  which  we  owe  to  these  disabled  men, 
to  seek  the  cooperation  of  every  employer  in  every  line  of 
activity.  There  will  arise  many  perplexing  problems  of 
wages,  of  employers'  liability,  of  special  equipment,  of 
unusual  conditions  due  to  the  man's  handicap :  each  must 
be  met  as  it  arises,  and  all  will  be  successfully  wrought 
out  if  there  is  that  same  fine  spirit  of  cooperation  in 
solving  the  new  problems  brought  forward  by  after-war 
conditions  as  has  been  shown  in  meeting  the  unprece- 
dented difficulties  of  the  war  itself.  The  federal  govern- 
ment will  do  its  part  by  providing  the  money  and  the 
administrative  machinery  necessary  to  make  every  dis- 
abled soldier  as  effective  in  the  economic  field  as  he  was 
effective  on  the  field  of  battle ;  but  the  government  can  do 
little  unless  it  has  the  hearty  and  intelligent  backing  of 
every  school,  every  industry  and  every  citizen  upon 
whom  it  may  call  for  aid  in  this  great,  complex  task  of 
fitting  back  into  economic  life  the  thousands  of  men  who, 
taken  out  by  the  inexorable  command  of  war  and  in- 
jured in  the  exercise  of  war,  have  been  or  are  to  be  re- 
habilitated by  the  government.  That  government  which 
had  the  right  to  summon  them  to  the  abnormal  service  of 
military  duty,  has  no  less  right  to  call  them  back  again  to 
normal,  life-long  service  upon  the  farm,  in  the  shop  or 
mine  or  counting-house,  on  the  railroad,  or  in  the  several 


292  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

professions.  Before  it  can  exercise  that  right,  however, 
it  must  have  fulfilled,  as  it  proposes  to  fulfill,  its  sacred 
obligation  to  make  those  men  as  efficient  as  possible,  not 
only  physically,  but  also  vocationally  in  the  widest  pos- 
sible field  of  effective  economic  service. 


THE  WAR'S   CRIPPLED 

ALMOST  no  problem  in  connection  with  the  war  makes 
an  appeal  so  direct  and  so  universal  as  that  of  the  future 
status  of  those  soldiers  and  sailors  who,  while  they  have 
not  made  the  supreme  sacrifice,  have  yet  given  to  their 
country  their  eyesight,  their  hearing  or  one  or  more  of 
their  limbs,  or  who,  having  contracted  disease  in  war, 
must  go  through  life  with  diminished  vitality  and  re- 
duced earning  capacity. 

Because  of  this  strong  appeal,  there  is  danger  that  so 
many  organizations  will  undertake  the  work  of  amelio- 
ration that  much  confusion  and  overlapping  of  effort  will 
result;  that  the  important  business  of  rehabilitating 
these  stricken  men  will  be  approached  from  the  angle  of 
sentimentality  rather  than  of  common  sense;  and  that, 
largely  because  of  this,  the  work  will  fall  too  much  into 
the  hands  of  amateurs  whose  desire  to  be  of  help  out- 
runs their  willingness  carefully  and  painfully  to  prepare 
themselves  for  intelligent  service. 

The  problem  raised  by  the  large  number  of  crippled 
and  otherwise  handicapped  men  is  both  moral  and  in- 
dustrial. It  is  supremely  important  that  young  men  who 
have  given  so  much  to  their  nation  should  not  be  led, 
through  unwise  dealing  with  their  cases,  to  sacrifice  also 
their  initiative,  their  self-reliance  and  even,  possibly, 
their  self-respect.  It  is  to  a  less  degree  important  that 

293 


294  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

industry,  which  needs  every  resource  in  man  power  that 
it  can  muster,  should  not  be  deprived  of  the  abilities,  both 
mental  and  physical,  that,  diminished  though  they  may 
be  by  the  hurts  of  war,  will  still  be  available  for  many 
years  of  genuine  contribution  to  the  welfare  of  the  state. 

Whether  a  man  injured  in  battle  or  by  disease  con- 
tracted in  war  is  to  continue  to  be  an  asset  to  society  and 
to  the  industrial  world,  or  is  to  degenerate  into  a  burden 
not  only  to  his  family  and  to  the  country  but  also  to  him- 
self, depends  upon  how  this  question  of  his  rehabilitation 
is  answered  by  the  government  which  has  been  preserved 
through  his  sacrifices  and  those  of  his  fellow  soldiers 
and  sailors.  And  the  point  at  which  it  is  determined 
whether  he  is  to  be  the  one  thing  or  the  other  is  the  mo- 
ment when,  restored  to  life  and  to  some  measure  of  effi- 
ciency by  surgical  or  other  treatment  at  the  base  hospital, 
he  realizes  that  he  is  to  go  back  into  the  world  in  very 
different  case  from  that  in  which,  leaving  the  ordinary 
courses  of  his  life,  he  became  a  part  of  the  vast  war  ma- 
chine. Beginning  at  that  moment,  everything  possible 
should  be  done  to  make  him  believe  that  while  he  goes 
back  with  a  different  efficiency  it  is  not  necessarily  a 
diminished  efficiency,  and  that  every  force  in  the  com- 
munity stands  ready  to  back  him  in  his  attempt  to  make 
himself  a  social  and  industrial  unit  just  as  effective  as, 
if  not  indeed  more  effective  than,  he  was  before. 

The  problem,  then,  of  the  physical  and  vocational  re- 
habilitation of  the  soldier  or  sailor  injured  in  battle  is 
a  problem  of  the  goal;  and  no  argument  for  this  or  that 
course  of  surgical  and  medical  treatment  and  for  this  or 


THE  WAR'S  CRIPPLED  295 

that  subsequent  education  can  be  sound  that  does  not 
keep  constantly  in  mind  the  object  for  which  that  process 
of  rehabilitation  is  to  be  carried  on.  If  the  work  of  the 
surgeon  and  teacher  is  to  have  no  other  result  than  that 
of  re-creating  a  human  body  doomed  to  sit  in  idleness, 
or  to  be  engaged  in  useless  occupations  for  the  remainder 
of  its  life,  then  that  work  is  a  real  disservice,  not  only  to 
society  but  to  the  man  himself.  Or  if,  skillful  as  the 
surgery  and  well-meaning  as  the  education  may  be,  these 
are  looked  upon  as  ends  in  themselves  rather  than  as  a 
means  to  the  supreme  end  of  turning  back  to  the  world 
as  efficient  a  citizen  as  that  maimed  human  being  can  be- 
come, then  those  efforts,  no  matter  how  imbued  with 
learning  and  good-will,  have  been  not  only  thrown  away, 
but  actually  prostituted. 

Since  the  goal  is  all-important  in  this  matter  of  reha- 
bilitation, it  follows  that  the  process  of  regeneration 
should  be  intelligently  continuous,  that  it  should  always 
take  into  reckoning  every  pathway  leading  to  that  goal, 
and  that  it  should  be  so  broadly  controlled  as  to  permit 
of  utilizing  every  force  that  may  bear,  in  greater  or  less 
degree,  upon  that  ultimate  result.  From  this  it  follows 
that  the  rehabilitation  of  the  soldier  or  sailor  for  whose 
handicapped  condition  the  government  is  directly  re- 
sponsible, is  a  task  that  the  government  alone  can  carry 
out.  Only  the  government  has  the  comprehensive  power 
to  command,  to  organize  and  to  make  effective  all  the  so- 
cial forces  which,  sooner  or  later,  must  be  focused  upon 
the  handicapped  man  in  order  to  bring  him  to  the  desired 
social  and  industrial  goal. 


296  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

Important  as  may  be  the  work  of  cooperation  on  the 
part  of  states  and  communities,  necessary  as  it  may  prove 
to  be  to  mobilize  the  forces  of  private  philanthropy  in 
this  far-reaching  work,  all  those  minor  elements  and 
aids  can  be  made  effective  only  as  they  are  tied  into  and 
made  an  integral  part  of  the  single  process  through 
which  the  government  must  undertake  to  restore  to 
society  in  general,  and  to  industry  in  particular,  as  ef- 
fective and  self-reliant  a  man  as  can  be  reconstructed  out 
of  the  shattered  thing  for  whose  shattering  the  govern- 
ment was,  of  course,  responsible. 

In  this  process  of  reconstruction  the  fundamental  ne- 
cessities are  continuity  of  action  and  definiteness  of  aim. 
The  long  and  tedious  process  of  physical  healing  and  of 
industrial  adaptation  will  wear  down  the  spirit  of  the 
cheeriest  patient  unless  there  is  kept  clearly  before  him 
the  reward  of  ultimate  social  efficiency.  The  methods 
of  restoration  will  have  not  only  no  continuity,  they  will 
have  no  meaning,  unless  all  those  concerned  in  that  res- 
toration, from  the  stretcher-bearer  through  the  sur- 
geons, nurses  and  teachers  of  vocational  therapy  to  those 
who  are  training  the  man  for  his  old  or  for  some  new  vo- 
cation, keep  always  before  themselves,  as  well  as  before 
the  patient,  the  fact  that  he  is  neither  "victim"  nor 
"  derelict."  He  must  be  by  direct  argument  persuaded 
that  he  is  a  normal  member  of  society,  handicapped  for 
a  time  by  his  injury,  but  spurred  by  that  handicap  to 
make  more  of  himself  than  would  have  been  likely  had 
he  not  gone  through  the  virilizing  process  of  service  to 
his  country  and  mankind. 


THE  WAR'S   CRIPPLED  297 

The  usual  successive  stages  of  this  continuous  process 
from  the  battlefield  to  the  moment  when  the  man  rees- 
tablishes himself,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  as  a  nor- 
mal factor  in  society,  are,  roughly,  these :  restoration  to 
life  through  surgical  or  medical  treatment,  or  both ;  bed 
convalescence,  with  such  occupations  as  may  be  possible 
for  keeping  the  mind  of  the  patient  diverted  from  him- 
self;  advanced  convalescence,  with  such  mechanical  and 
other  therapies  as  are  essential  to  muscular  and  other 
restoration,  and  with  such  vocational  therapy  as  will  not 
only  assist  the  other  therapies  but  will  keep  the  patient 
always  headed  towards  industrial  restoration;  voca- 
tional training  proper,  in  which  either  he  is  definitely  re- 
trained (under  the  conditions  of  his  handicap)  for  his 
former  vocation,  is  given  advanced  instruction  in  that 
vocation,  or  is  fitted  for  an  entirely  new  field  of  activity ; 
placement,  wherein,  with  the  most  careful  regard  not 
only  to  his  present  abilities  but  also  to  his  future  oppor- 
tunities, he  is  so  put  back  into  industry  as  not  to  disrupt 
the  normal  industrial  situation;  and  follow-up,  through 
which  those  who  have  t>een  responsible  for  restoring 
him  to  a  place  in  the  economic  world  see  to  it  that,  so  long 
as  he  may  really  need  guidance  and  moral  support,  he 
gets  it,  care  being  taken  that  nothing  is  done  to  weaken 
his  self-reliance  and  his  self-respect. 

Fortunately,  the  machinery  for  this  intelligent,  con- 
tinuous process  of  conducting  the  maimed  soldier  from 
the  battlefield  to  the  productive  industry  already  exists 
and  is,  or  has  the  promise  of  being,  to  a  high  degree  effi- 
cient. The  plans  of  the  surgeon  general's  office  for  the 


298  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

care  of  the  men  immediately  behind  the  line,  in  base 
hospitals,  in  general  hospitals  in  Europe,  and  in  distri- 
bution and  special  hospitals  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic, 
were  extensive,  wisely  made  and  under  the  supervision 
of  the  best  surgical,  medical  and  lay  minds  that  the  coun- 
try, and  indeed  the  world,  can  produce.  The  various 
therapies  and  other  restorative  measures,  including  vo- 
cational therapy,  have  been  given  unusual  study  during 
the  past  decade;  and  restorations  that  a  few  years  ago 
would  have  been  thought  miraculous  are  now  occur- 
rences of  every  day. 

Vocational  education,  a  thing  laughed  at  twenty  years 
ago,  has  made  extraordinary  strides  during  the  recent 
years ;  and  its  leaders,  both  inside  and  outside  the  schools, 
are  competent  to  apply  the  now  well-understood  prin- 
ciples of  that  form  of  education  to  the  special  problems 
of  the  handicapped.  The  schools,  the  colleges,  the  pro- 
fessional schools  not  only  stand  ready,  they  are  organ- 
ized as  never  before,  to  give  intelligent  help  both  in  re- 
storing the  maimed  man  to  useful  living  and  in  lifting 
him  to  a  position  higher  than  that  held  by  him  before  his 
injury.  Large,  well-organized  and  well-correlated 
bodies  of  employers  and  of  employees  are  eager  to  do 
their  part  in  putting  these  much-needed  men  back  into 
the  industries,  to  the  mutual  advantage  of  industry  and 
of  the  mutilated  man  himself.  Organized  philanthropy 
is  in  such  a  position  of  preparedness  as  it  never  has  been 
before  to  supplement  the  work  of  the  government,  both 
with  money  and  with  assistance  in  organizing  those  lines 
of  social  service  in  which  governmental  machinery  is 


THE  WAR'S   CRIPPLED  299 

not  usually  effective.  It  is  important  to  realize,  too, 
that  industry,  partly  through  its  own  gradual  enlight- 
enment and  mainly  through  the  teaching  of  war,  has 
come  to  recognize  that  the  temporary  problem  of  the 
crippled  soldier  finds  its  permanent  counterpart  in  the 
unending  problem  of  those  maimed  in  every  conceivable 
way  by  industry  itself.  For  this  reason  it  will  be  easy, 
as  it  will  be  imperative,  to  carry  over  into  industry,  to 
meet  its  normal  demands,  the  same  machinery  that  is 
being  devised  to  fulfill  the  abnormal  demands  of  war. 

Excellent  as  all  this  existing  machinery  is,  it  will  not 
function  properly  unless  from  the  first  to  the  last  there 
is  real,  continuous>  what  one  might  call  "flowing"  co- 
operation by  these  agencies,  and  unless  all  their  activities 
and  all  their  cooperative  measures  have  as  their  common 
aim  the  restoration  of  the  man  to  his  former  place  —  or 
to  a  better  place  —  as  a  genuine  factor  in  the  industrial, 
mercantile,  agricultural  or  professional  world.  Having 
those  two  things  in  mind,  continuity  and  singleness  of 
aim,  it  is  not  without  profit  to  consider  some  of  the  dan- 
gers that  must  be  looked  out  for  in  carrying  out,  officially 
and  unofficially,  the  truly  sacred  work  of  repairing,  so 
far  as  it  can  be  repaired,  the  manifold  and  cruel  human 
damage  to  American  citizenship  that  has  resulted  from 
the  war. 

:  An  initial  danger  was  that  the  beginning  of  the  work  of 
restoration  might  be  delayed  too  long.  It  is  obvious  that 
the  more  quickly  an  injured  man  can  be  brought  to  the 
base  hospital,  there  to  be  operated  upon  by  the  utmost 
skill  obtainable,  the  better  will  be  his  chances  of  complete 


300  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

physical  restoration.  It  is  not,  however,  so  generally 
recognized  that  every  hour's  delay  in  beginning,  on  the 
one  hand,  such  treatment  as  may  be  necessary  to  pre- 
vent ankyloses,  weaknesses,  clumsiness  and  even  ten- 
dency to  undue  fatigue  in  the  injured  parts,  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  such  mental  and  physical  therapies  as  tend 
to  restore  hope,  self-confidence  and  determination  to 
live  as  normal  a  life  as  possible,  diminishes  in  arithmeti- 
cal if  not  in  geometrical  proportion,  the  man's  chances 
of  subsequent  happiness  and  civic  usefulness.  The 
whole  atmosphere  surrounding  the  man  fresh  from  the 
battlefield  should  be  one  of  courage,  of  forward-looking, 
of  confidence  that  the  world  still  holds  for  him  not  only 
the  old  opportunities,  but  even  better  chances. 

The  invalid  may  come  to  be  regarded  and  especially 
may  come  to  regard  himself,  not  as  a  man  who  has  had  a 
temporary  "set-back"  soon  to  be  overcome,  but  as  an 
interesting  "case"  to  be  worked  upon  and  (in  a  proper 
sense)  experimented  with,  to  see  what  the  surgical  or 
medical  results  may  be.  Nothing  is  more  fatal  than 
for  a  sick  man  of  any  kind  to  take  an  interest  in  the  in- 
valid state  and  to  view  his  treatment  as  an  end  in  itself. 
So  far  as  the  patient  is  concerned,  the  means  by  which  he 
is  being  restored  should  be  treated  as  of  the  most  minor 
consequence ;  the  thing  to  be  kept  always  prominent  be- 
fore his  mind  is  the  restoration,  to  which  the  treatment 
is  merely  the  necessary  avenue. 

The  soldier  or  sailor  may  become  not  only  "hospital- 
ized," but  "  feminized,"  by  too  much  coddling  both  within 
and  without  the  hospital.  Hero  worship  is  popular; 


THE  WAR'S  CRIPPLED  301 

nurses  are  but  human;  thousands  of  well-meaning 
women  have  little  to  do  and  a  large  capacity  for  senti- 
mentalism ;  the  ease  and  comparative  luxury  of  the  hos- 
pital, after  the  hardships  of  the  field,  tend  strongly  to 
break  down  a  man's  morale ;  and  he  has  larger  opportu- 
nity probably  than  ever  before  for  self-contemplation 
and,  if  it  is  not  checked,  self-pity.  It  is  far  healthier  for 
the  patient  to  regard  the  hospital  period  as  a  necessary 
nuisance  temporarily  barring  his  way  towards  active 
usefulness,  than  it  is  —  as  may  happen  if  he  be  too  much 
coddled  —  for  him  to  look  upon  it  as  a  sort  of  paradise 
between  the  hell  of  the  battlefield  and  the  nightmare  of 
life  out  in  the  cold  world  with  a  leg,  an  arm  or  perhaps 
both  eyes,  gone. 

The  work  of  vocational  training,  which  includes  not 
only  the  work  of  fitting  the  patient  to  earn  but  also  of 
teaching  his  shattered  body  to  perform,  through  arti- 
ficial aids,  or  through  new  dexterities,  the  work  that  the 
unmaimed  body  used  to  do,  may  be  delayed  so  long  that 
the  man  loses  the  habit  of  work  and  the  impulse  to 
achievement  before  the  training  for  that  work  and 
achievement  along  the  new  lines  begins.  The  danger  in 
the  "bedside  occupation"  lies  not  in  the  futility  of  it, 
but  in  the  fact  that  it  is  not  work,  that  a  man  could  never 
be  fooled  into  believing  that  it  is,  and  that  he  may  de- 
velop an  appetite  for  "  passing  the  time  "  rather  than  for 
doing  genuine  work  that  produces  something  real  and 
leads  at  least  a  short  step  forward  on  the  road  to  liveli- 
hood. It  would  seem  most  important  to  make  a  special 
study  of  "bedside  occupations"  with  the  view  of  ascer- 


302  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

taining  whether  even  they  may  not  be  made  in  some  de- 
gree vocational. 

The  time  of  beginning  vocational  rehabilitation  may 
be  too  long  put  off,  again  in  deference  to  supposed  sur- 
gical or  medical  demands.  Nothing  in  the  direction  of 
vocational  training  should  be  permitted,  of  course,  to  in- 
terfere with  the  proper  healing  of  the  man's  wounds,  or 
with  the  restoration  of  his  physical  and  mental  poise; 
but  there  is  always  a  possibility  that  the  doctor,  neces- 
sarily unfamiliar  with  industries  and  with  processes  of 
training,  may  exaggerate  their  danger  from  the  surgi- 
cal standpoint  and  very  greatly  minimize  their  value  as 
a  veritable  aid  to  recovery.  The  surgeon  cannot  bring 
the  vocational  expert  too  early  into  counsel ;  and  if  each 
stands  up  as  strongly  as  possible  for  his  own  point  of 
view,  while  deferring  as  little  as  may  be  to  the  possible 
prejudices  of  the  other,  they  are  almost  certain  to  reach 
a  middle  ground  that  will  in  most  cases  prove  the  safest 
for  the  welfare  of  the  patient. 

No  connection,  or  little  connection,  may  be  set  up  be- 
tween the  vocational  therapy  of  the  hospital  and  the  vo- 
cational training  that,  in  most  cases,  the  patient  must 
have  before  he  can  be  restored  to  industry.  The  results, 
in  that  case,  are  doubly  evil:  there  is  brought  about  an 
unfortunate,  and  often  disastrous,  break  between  the 
skill  that  the  man  attains  in  the  hospital  and  that  which 
he  must  attain  outside,  and  there  is  thrown  away  a  period 
that  is  valuable  beyond  reckoning  in  determining  the  fit- 
ness of  the  patient  for  his  future  occupation  in  general 
and  for  that  special  branch  of  it  which,  with  his  handi- 
cap, he  is  best  suited  to  follow. 


THE  WAR'S  CRIPPLED  303 

The  whole  question  of  vocational  training,  whether 
therapeutic  or  industrial,  may  be  handled  in  too  routine 
a  fashion.  Most  of  the  men  receiving  hospital  treat- 
ment are  comparatively  young.  As  a  consequence,  com- 
paratively few  had  achieved  a  settled  vocation  before 
they  went  to  war.  Even  those  who  have  reached  seem- 
ing equilibrium  probably  chose  their  vocation  quite  at 
haphazard.  The  experience  of  warfare  has  broadened 
their  vision  and  may  perhaps  have  stirred  latent  ambi- 
tion. The  early  days  of  vocational  training,  therefore, 
are  most  fruitful  in  opportunity  to  relocate  the  young 
man  industrially;  to  find  out  whether,  even  with  his 
handicap,  he  may  not  greatly  better  his  chances  in  the 
world ;  whether  or  not,  with  this  exceptional  opportunity, 
he  may  branch  out  into  some  quite  new  field  of  endeavor ; 
whether  or  not  he  may  have  possibilities  of  achieve- 
ment that  had  his  life  flowed  in  the  old  channels,  would 
never  have  been  discovered.  But  if  this  most  valuable 
work  of  vocational  exploration  is  to  be  undertaken,  it 
is  absolutely  essential  that  the  work  of  the  surgeon  and 
the  doctor  who  must  of  necessity  view  the  curative  work- 
shop from  its  therapeutic  aspect,  should  be  unceasingly 
supplemented  by  that  of  the  real  vocational  expert  who 
will  know  how  to  elicit  from  the  patient's  earliest  voca- 
tional reactions,  hints  probably  of  the  utmost  value  as 
to  his  latent  possibilities,  aptitudes  and  unexpressed 
ambitions. 

Not  only  may  the  hospital  feel  inclined  to  hold  on  to 
the  patient  —  especially  if  he  be  an  interesting  case  — 
too  long,  but  it  may  magnify  an  hour  of  needed  massage 


304  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

or  an  occasional  therapeutic  exercise  out  of  all  propor- 
tion as  compared  with  giving  the  man  steady,  purpose- 
ful and  serious  vocational  training.  Just  as  it  is  desir- 
able, from  the  point  of  view  of  his  future  welfare  as  a 
citizen,  to  get  the  crippled  soldier  off  the  battlefield  at 
the  earliest  moment,  so  it  is  equally  important  to  get  him 
out  of  bed  as  quickly  as  possible ;  and  it  is  of  still  greater 
moment,  from  that  same  viewpoint,  to  get  him  out  of 
the  hospital  and  on  the  road  to  work  at  the  very  first 
hour  that  regard  for  his  physical  safety  will  allow. 
There  is  nothing  so  easy  as  relaxation ;  there  is  nothing 
so  essential  to  abnormal  as  well  as  to  normal  men  as  the 
bracing  tonic  of  real  work.  And  there  seems  every 
reason  to  believe  that  such  a  "brace"  is  as  valuable 
from  the  therapeutic  as  it  is  from  the  vocational 
standpoint. 

There  is  danger,  too,  that  the  vocational  training 
mayjtself  be  institutionalized  rather  than  individualized, 
Even  less  than  normal  men  ran  handicapped  men  and 
youth  be  treated  by  herd  methods.  Every  crippled  sol- 
dier is  a  problem  in  himself ;  and  the  very  fact  that  he  has 
been  so  long  subjected,  first  in  the  army  and  then  in  the 
hospital,  to  disciplines  that  tend  to  crush  individuality, 
make  it  doubly  necessary  that  at  the  earliest  moment  his 
ego  should  be  recognized  and  forced  to  assert  itself  in 
the  opportunities  for  active  decision  inseparable  from 
both  the  choice  of  and  preparation  for  a  real  vocation. 
If  there  were  no  other  arguments,  this  alone  would  prove 
the  unwisdom  of  having  his  vocational  training  under 
army  control. 


THE  WAR'S  CRIPPLED  305 

The  handicapped  men  may  be  trained  for  inferior  and 
somewhat  discredited  vocations.  Tradition  seems  to 
have  set  aside  certain  trades  as  belonging  peculiarly  to 
the  handicapped  and,  almost  without  exception,  those  vo- 
cations are  ill-paid,  uncertain  of  patronage  and  verging 
on  the  field  of  beggary.  Nothing  could  be  more  disas- 
trous for  the  great  experiment  of  putting  handicapped 
men  really  on  their  feet  than  to  continue  to  condemn  them 
to  these  pariah  jobs.  On  the  contrary,  the  only  hope  of 
success  is  in  training  these  men  for,  and  securing  their 
admission  to,  those  dignified  trades,  occupations  and  pro- 
fessions to  which  normal  men  are  proud  to  belong. 
There  is  no  profession  too  occult,  no  occupation  too  com- 
plex, no  trade  too  difficult  for  a  handicapped  man  to  as- 
pire to,  provided  he  have  the  ability  to  fill  it  and  the  grit 
to  prepare  himself  to  conquer  it. 

It  may  be  attempted  to  meet  this  problem  of  vocational 
rehabilitation  by  methods  of  segregation,  colonization,  or 
by  other  schemes  for  putting  the  handicapped  by  them- 
selves. It  would  seem  almost  superfluous  to  argue  that 
one  does  not  make  an  abnormal  man  normal  by  herding 
him  with  other  abnormals,  and  that  the  action  and  re- 
action of  a  lot  of  handicapped  men  set  apart  by  them- 
selves would  soon  convert  them  all  into  physical  and 
moral  invalids  with  their  lives  given  mainly  to  the  com- 
parison of  symptoms  and  to  multiple  bewailing  of  their 
unjust  lot.  The  salvation  of  a  crippled  man  is  to  put  him 
into  as  close  contact  as  possible  with  whole  men,  who  will 
give  him  not  only  actual  help  in  his  work,  but  the  far 
greater  assistance  that  comes  to  the  abnormal  from  the 


306  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

breezy  health  and  strength  of  those  who  are  sound  in 
wind  and  limb. 

It  may  be  attempted  to  undertake  the  work  of  place- 
ment for  these  handicapped  men  without  proper  consid- 
eration of  such  fundamental  problems  as  those  of  gen- 
eral and  of  local  labor  demand;  of  the  permanency  of 
the  proposed  occupation;  of  the  adjustment  of  wages, 
which  in  some  cases  will  have  to  be  on  a  lower  level  than 
that  of  the  normal  worker ;  of  the  relation  of  this  partic- 
ular problem  to  the  larger  question  of  industrial  rela- 
tions; of  the  legal  and  other  difficulties  involved  in  the 
conditions  surrounding  employers'  liability  insurance ;  of 
the  circumstances  under  which  'the  crippled  men  must 
work,  etc.  To  make  this  mistake  would  be  to  nullify 
all  that  had  been  done  in  preparing  the  man  for  voca- 
tional efficiency ;  and  the  fact  that  such  complex  business 
problems  as  these  stand  at  the  end  of  the  vocational  road 
emphasizes  anew  the  inadequacy  of  merely  medical,  or 
solely  military,  control  for  this  far-reaching  service. 

It  may  be  deemed  sufficient  to  train  the  returned  sol- 
dier or  sailor,  to  find  him  a  position  and  then  to  let  him 
shift  for  himself.  This,  again,  would  be  practically  to 
nullify  all  that  had  gone  before.  With  most  cases,  the 
hardest  time  will  be  that  of  adjustment,  when  the  man, 
released  from  the  supervision,  first  of  the  hospital  and 
then  of  the  educational  process,  finds  himself,  handi- 
capped and  probably  in  a  new  occupation,  confronted 
with  the  rush  and  indifference  of  the  competitive  world. 
It  is  at  this  trying  time  that  the  man  needs  someone  at 
his  side  to  whom  he  may  turn  for  advice,  for  courage, 


THE  WAR'S   CRIPPLED  307 

for  help  over  the  high  hurdles  of  industrial  adjustment. 
But,  as  has  already  been  said,  to  coddle  him  at  that  time, 
to  give  him  too  much  support,  to  treat  him  as  a  weakling, 
would  be  to  do  him  the  greatest  of  injuries.  The  work 
of  "  follow-up  "  will  prove  to  be  one.  of  the  most  compli- 
cated in  the  whole  series  of  big  problems  connected  with 
rehabilitation ;  but ;  •.  is  a  work  that  must  be  provided  for 
as  carefully  as  for  any  of  the  preceding  steps.  On  no 
account,  moreover,  must  this  difficult  service  be  put  into 
the  hands  of  amateurs.  Here,  of  all  places,  are  needed 
the  experience,  the  wisdom,  the  clear  common  sense  of 
men  and  women  who  have  given  years  to  preparing 
themselves  for  this  most  expert  task  of  social  adjust- 
ment. 

These  are  a  few  of  the  dangers  inherent  in  the  work 
of  rehabilitating  the  soldiers  and  sailors  who  gave  of 
their  youth  and  strength  on  our  behalf.  After  that  sad 
procession  has  been  sorted  out,  after  the  hopeless  cases 
have  been  sent  to  the  asylums  of  one  sort  and  another 
that  this  generous  country  will  provide,  after  the  slightly 
crippled  have  been  easily  put  back  into  industry,  and  after 
the  really  handicapped  have  been,  far  less  easily,  helped 
to  find  their  best  places  in  the  economic  world,  there  will 
still  remain,  presumably  forever,  the  equally  sad  proces- 
sion of  the  industrially  crippled,  the  men  who,  whether 
by  their  own  fault  or  by  that  of  industry  itself,  have  been 
permanently  maimed  and  who  are,  for  society,  a  charge 
almost  if  not  quite  as  sacred  as  that  of  men  crippled  by 
war.  The  bases  of  action  and  the  fundamental  dangers 
to  be  avoided  are  exactly  the  same  with  these  industrial 


3o8  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

cripples  as  with  the  maimed  soldiers  and  sailors.  It 
would  seem  reasonable,  therefore,  that  practically  the 
same  machinery  should  be  utilized  in  the  rehabilitation 
of  these  victims  of  economic,  as  in  restoring  those  vic- 
tims of  military,  necessity.  Every  step  in  the  process  of 
training,  every  need  for  cooperation,  every  obstacle  to 
be  avoided  and  overcome  —  above  all,  everything  that 
concerns  the  ultimate  goal  of  the  rehabilitation  —  holds 
as  exactly  for  one  victim  as  for  the  other.  And  one  of 
the  ameliorations  of  the  war  will  be  found,  it  is  practi- 
cally certain,  in  the  new  and  truly  humane  way  in  which 
society  will  in  future'  view  those  industrial  cripples, 
whom,  heretofore,  it  has  either  ignored  or  condemned 
to  mendicancy. 


EMPLOYING   THE   HANDICAPPED 

AMONG  the  many  worries  that  rob  the  nightly  rest  of 
a  manufacturer  or  other  employer  is  the  ceaseless  fear 
of  accidents  which  may  injure  one  or  perhaps  many  of 
his  men.  The  continual  and  considerable  cost  of  the 
problem,  in  the  now  usual  form  of  liability  insurance,  is 
the  least  of  the  employer's  troubles.  What  disturbs  him 
is  that  his  plant  may  be  responsible  for  all  the  sorrow 
and  economic  loss  which  the  killing  or  maiming  of  even 
one  man  or  woman  is  certain  to  entail. 

Moreover,  a  man  with  any  decency  of  feeling  (and 
most  employers  have  a  good  deal  more  of  this  than 
they  are  given  credit  for)  is  always  puzzled  what  to 
do  with  a  maimed  employee,  especially  if  he  has  been 
long  in  service.  The  mischief  of  the  thing  has  here- 
tofore been  that  both  employer  and  injured  man 
have  labored  under  the  mistaken  notion  that  a  maimed 
workman  is  a  "  has  been,"  whose  only  resource  is 
either  a  pension  paid  straight  out  or  a  pension  paid 
in  the  form  of  wages  for  some  good-for-nothing  job 
which  the  disabled  employee  holds  down  in  order  to  pre- 
serve his  self-respect.  No  one  cares  whether  or  not  he 
really  works  and,  as  a  rule,  he  could  not  work  if  he 
wanted  to,  for  the  employer  will  not  trust  him  to  do 
more  than  sit  by  a  gate  with  a  watchman's  badge  on  his 

309 


310  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

coat  or  occupy  a  chair  near  the  time  clock.  Conse- 
quently industry,  which  needs  at  this  time,  and  ought  to 
need  at  all  times,  every  man  that  it  can  muster  for 
the  carrying  on  of  real  men's  jobs,  is  lumbered  up 
with  at  least  a  quarter  million  of  these  derelicts  thrown 
on  the  industrial  scrap  heap  because  everybody  thought, 
and  most  people  still  think,  that  these  250,000  men  are  fit 
for  nothing  else. 

If  the  federal  government  still  clung  to  the  fallacy 
that  a  man  disabled  is  a  man  unable,  the  country  would 
be  facing  the  very  serious  problem  of  having  to  throw 
on  this  industrial  scrap  heap  a  new  lot  of  derelicts  in- 
jured not  in  promoting  industry  but  in  saving  civiliza- 
tion. We  at  last  did  our  national  duty  by  going  into  the 
war,  and  we  went  into  it  fully  and  gloriously;  but  we 
must  pay  the  price  demanded,  both  in  money  and  in  men. 
We  do  not  know  even  yet  what  the  price  will  be,  but  we 
do  know  that  for  every  million  men  we  sent  overseas  a 
certain  number  will  be  permanently  disabled.  While 
surgery  and  medicine  can  do  wonders,  they  can  not 
restore  lost  limbs;  they  can  not  build  up  shattered 
nerves;  they  can  not  always  overcome  the  effects  of 
shrapnel  wounds,  of  living  in  trenches,  of  lying  for  days 
in  shell  holes  or  out  in  No  Man's  Land.  So  there  has 
come  and  still  is  coming  back  to  the  United  States  a 
stream  of  men  injured  in  hundreds  of  ways  by  the 
unheeding  hand  of  war. 

Now  that  peace  has  come,  with  a  quarter  of  a  million 
men  on  the  scrap  heap  already  from  industrial  acci- 
dents, are  these  returned  and  returning  fighters  to  be 


EMPLOYING  THE  HANDICAPPED  311 

put  there,  too?  What  an  economic  waste  and  what  an 
outrage  to  treat  in  this  way  men  who  have  risked  every- 
thing to  keep  this  country  safe,  powerful  and  free! 
Pencil  selling  and  other  forms  of  camouflaged  beggary 
may  have  been  allowable  when  we  knew  no  better,  but 
they  are  not  to  be  thought  of  for  an  instant  in  these 
more  enlightened  days.  That  is  what  Uncle  Sam 
thinks;  for  he  has  put  his  war  pensions  on  a  proper 
basis  as  an  insurance  obligation,  and  has  made  exten- 
sive preparations  for  taking  care  of  his  disabled  boys, 
not  as  beggars,  but  as  self-respecting  men. 

The  best  return  that- the  country  can  make  for  the  ser- 
vice these  injured  men  have  rendered  is  to  give  them 
every  opportunity  to  perform  in  the  years  after  the  war 
the  same  quality  of  fine  national  service  that  they  ren- 
dered during  the  war  itself.  And  the  only  way  in  which 
they  can  perform  that  continued  service  is  as  efficient 
workers  in  agriculture,  industry,  commerce  or  the  pro- 
fessions. So  the  government  is  giving  them  that  op- 
portunity, under  the  best  conditions,  by  making  a  fed- 
eral body  directly  responsible  for  getting  them  back  into 
civilian  employment,  for  training  them  to  render,  taking 
account  of  their  possible  handicaps,  the  most  effective 
service,  and  for  seeing  to  it  that  when  they  are  re-em- 
ployed they  secure  a  square  deal. 

The  Surgeon  General's  Office,  as  it  has  always  done, 
makes  these  men  disabled  in  war  as  whole  again  physi- 
cally as  they  can  be  made;  but  then,  instead  of  turning 
them  out  to  shift  for  themselves,  the  government  has 
commissioned  the  Federal  Board  for  Vocational  Educa- 


312  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

tion  to  meet  each  one  of  these  men,  to  offer  to  help  him  in 
getting  his  old  or  some  new  job,  to  provide  any  sort  of 
training,  at  government  expense,  that  he  may  need  to 
secure  that  former  or  new  position,  and  to  support  him 
and  his  dependents  while  he  is  getting  trained.  There 
is  no  compulsion  in  the  matter.  If  the  man,  when  he 
leaves  the  military  service,  does  not  want  help  of  any 
kind  it  will  not  be  forced  upon  him ;  but  it  is  safe  to  pre- 
dict that  almost  every  fellow  will  be  eager  to  receive  the 
right  kind  of  training  needed,  either  to  overcome  his 
disability,  or  to  develop  him  into  a  better  worker  than 
he  was,  or  to  make  him  competent  in  some  new  line  of 
service. 

The  first  question  that  a  handicapped  man  offered  this 
opportunity  asks  is,  "What  job  will  I  get  when  I  have 
finished  this  training  stunt?"  The  trouble  with  most 
education  is  that  the  educatee  —  if  one  may  coin  the  word 
—  does  not  see  whither  the  training  leads.  The  law 
holds  the  boy  to  his  task  even  when  he  can  see  no  use  in 
what  he  is  being  forced  to  do ;  but  neither  the  law  nor  any 
talk  as  to  the  abstract  value  of  training  could  in  itself 
hold  men  like  these  who  have  been  face  to  face  with  the 
very  real  and  active  task  of  dealing  with  the  Hun.  They 
will  insist  upon  seeing  where  they  are  going;  and  they 
will  usually  waste  no  time  in  being  educated  for  a  job 
unless  they  can  "spot"  the  opportunity  itself  and  can 
be  persuaded  that  the  only  right  road  to  that  goal  is 
through  a  direct,  concrete  course  of  training  such  as 
those  prescribed  by  the  Federal  Board  invariably  are. 
Therefore,  to  make  its  plans  function  the  Board  must 


EMPLOYING  THE  HANDICAPPED  313 

be  able  to  point  the  training  toward  a  specific  occupation 
waiting  for  the  man  when  he  is  industrially  fit,  an  occu- 
pation in  which  he  will  be  kept  not  on  a  charity  basis  but 
because  he  can  make  good,  and  in  which  he  will  have  the 
satisfaction  of  feeling  that,  handicapped  though  he  may 
be  in  body,  he  is  doing  a  man's  work. 

Consequently  the  keystone  of  this  carefully  con- 
sidered plan  of  the  government  for  salvaging  the  in- 
jured soldiers  and  sailors  of  its  great  military  force 
is  the  hearty,  intelligent  and  untiring  cooperation  of 
employers  throughout  the  whole  United  States.  The 
farmers  must  take  back  every  farmer  boy  who  wants 
to  return  to  the  land  and  as  many  more  of  the  dis- 
abled soldiers  and  sailors  as  can  be  induced  and  can  be 
adequately  trained  to  take  up  this  industry,  so  closely 
akin  to  that  life  in  the  open  to  which  men  of  the  Army 
and  Navy  are  accustomed.  The  industries,  large  and 
small,  must  make  a  careful  inventory  to  see  where  and 
how  they  can  use  properly  trained,  disabled  men  in  real 
"  man-sized  "  jobs.  The  merchants  must  reckon  how 
far  it  is  safe,  from  every  point  of  view,  for  them  to  use 
in  selling,  buying  and  accounting  men  with  this  or  that 
physical  handicap.  And  especially  must  those  profes- 
sions and  those  occupations  which  are  largely  adminis- 
trative in  character  make  up  their  minds  to  give  every 
proper  chance  to  those  disabled  men  who,  through  edu- 
cation secured  before  and  after  the  war,  are  competent 
to  undertake  intellectual  responsibilities.  It  is  a  truism, 
of  course,  that  the  more  a  man  can  use  his  head  in  earn- 
ing a  living  the  less  will  be  the  handicap  due  to  a  body 
more  or  less  below  par. 


314  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

Scarcely  an  employer  in  the  United  States  but  will 
welcome  the  chance  to  show  in  a  concrete  way  his  appre- 
ciation of  what  these  injured  men  have  done  for  the 
country  and  for  him  as  one  of  its  citizens.  But  that 
grateful  employer  will  do  the  injured  man  and  society 
an  ill  service  if  he  lets  his  heart  run  away  with  his  head. 
He  wants  to  be  generous,  of  course ;  but  he  must  not  be 
so  at  the  expense  of  his  business,  of  his  normal  employ- 
ees and  of  the  general  good.  Above  all,  he  must  not 
try  to  get  a  reputation  for  public  spirit  by  taking  on 
handicapped  men  for  whom  he  has  no  real  opportunities 
that  will  keep  real  and  dependable  through  bad  times  as 
well  as  good.  Consequently,  before  any  employer,  in 
his  natural  desire  to  show  his  patriotism  by  giving  these 
returning  soldiers  a  helping  hand,  commits  himself  to  a 
program  for  reemploying  his  own  disabled  men  or  for 
taking  on  new  men  injured  in  the  service,  it  is  imperative 
that  he  look  the  thing  squarely  in  the  face  and  study 
this  problem  of  using  handicapped  soldiers  in  his  particu- 
lar establishment  in  the  clear  light  of  questions  such  as 
these : 

Is  every  job  that  I  am  offering  one  that  a  handicapped 
man  can  perform  with  real  efficiency  and  without  undue 
strain  upon  his  reduced  vitality  ? 

Is  the  job  one  that,  if  he  is  properly  trained  and  proves 
competent,  the  disabled  man  can  hold  even  when  it  is 
necessary,  through  slack  business,  to  lay  off  a  part  of 
the  force? 

If,  as  may  happen  in  a  few  cases,  I  have  to  pay,  be- 
cause of  reduced  earning  power,  a  lower  wage  to  this 


EMPLOYING  THE  HANDICAPPED  315 

handicapped  man,  are  my  relations  to  the  unions  or  to 
my  open-shop  force  such  as  to  guard  against  friction 
when  the  inevitable  hard  times  come? 

Am  I  ready  to  provide,  not  only  now  but  as  long  as  he 
remains  with  me,  such  special  appliances  or  such  indi- 
vidual safeguards  as  the  nature  of  this  man's  handicap 
may  require  ? 

Am  I  going  to  give  this  man  a  square  deal  all  the  way 
through,  or  am  I  going  to  let  myself  be  influenced,  when 
it  comes  to  the  matter  of  promotions,  etc.,  by  the  fact  that 
a  handicapped  employee  is  less  able  than  a  normal  one  to 
"hustle"  for  another  job? 

Is  my  willingness  to  give  him  a  man's  chance  dictated 
by  the  desire  to  help,  or  have  I  a  lurking  feeling  that  if 
I  employ  a  considerable  number  of  handicapped  men  at 
a  reduced  wage  I  can  get,  under  the  guise  of  patriotism, 
a  few  inches  ahead  of  my  competitors  ? 

And,  finally,  and  most  important  of  all,  am  I  going 
into  this  scheme  of  employing  handicapped  men  on  the 
only  basis  upon  which  it  can  succeed:  that  of  business 
"  horse  sense  "  which  realizes  that,  by  the  full  and  wise 
utilization  of  handicapped  labor  on  a  footing  that  is  as 
fair  to  business  as  it  is  to  the  injured  man,  industry  as 
a  whole  will  be  a  great  gainer  and  a  source  of  national 
strength  that  otherwise  would  be  wasted  is  fully  and 
steadily  used? 

Only  after  an  employer  has  asked  himself  these  ques- 
tions and  has  answered  them  to  the  full  satisfaction  of 
himself  and  of  those  who  are  immediately  concerned  in 
getting  the  handicapped  man  back  into  the  industrial, 


3i6  HUMAN  FACTOR  IN  EDUCATION 

commercial  or  professional  world  is  he  really  ready  to 
consider  .the  details  as  to  just  where  the  disabled  soldier 
or  sailor  can  be  employed  and  just  how  much  training 
or  retraining  a  candidate  for  this  or  that  particular  line 
of  activity  ought  to  have. 

It  is  on  this  sound  basis  of  understanding  and  agree- 
ment that  the  Federal  Board  for  Vocational  Education  is 
carrying  forward  its  work  of  placement,  and  it  hopes 
that  every  employer  to  whom  its  agents  go,  seeking 
chances  for  handicapped  men,  will  look  at  the  question 
from  this  broad  viewpoint  rather  than  from  the  some- 
what hysterical  attitude  of  indiscriminate  philanthropy 
or  the  unthinking  standpoint  of  those  employers,  fortu- 
nately growing  few  and  fewer,  who  look  no  farther  than 
to-morrow  or  the  day  after  in  their  handling  of  that  most 
vital  of  all  business  problems,  —  the  employment  ques- 
tion. 

There  are  few  men  so  handicapped  by  maiming  or  dis- 
ease that,  given  proper  training  for  a  suitable  occupation, 
they  cannot  make  good.  The  federal  government  will 
provide  the  proper  training;  during  its  full  period 
the  man  and  his  dependents  will  be  adequately  supported. 
No  chance  for  work  will  be  asked  for  on  any  ground  ex- 
cept that  of  the  man's  efficiency.  If  he  does  not  make 
good  he  will  be  taken  away  and,  if  possible,  trained  for 
something  else.  That  is  the  government's  side  of  the 
proposed  plan  of  cooperation ;  the  other  side  rests  in  the 
hands  of  the  employing  public;  and  the  whole  sensible 
scheme  will  fall  to  the  ground  unless  every  employer  ap- 
preciates the  fact  that  it  is  "  up  to  him  "  to  give  these 


EMPLOYING  THE  HANDICAPPED  317 

men  who  have  been  injured  in  his  behalf  a  fair  chance,  a 
reasonable  time  to  make  good,  a  friendly  "hand-up" 
and  a  square  deal;  that  is  to  say,  a  foursquare  deal  in 
which  the  interests  of  the  man,  of  the  employer,  of  the 
labor  market  and  of  society  in  general  all  get  full  and 
equal  consideration. 


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